diff --git a/system/ids.nix b/system/ids.nix
index fd6ff9f6a15b..b83f9a531c5b 100644
--- a/system/ids.nix
+++ b/system/ids.nix
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
     nagios = 6;
     vsftpd = 7;
     ftp = 8;
+    bitlbee = 9;
     nixbld = 30000; # start of range of uids
     nobody = 65534;
   };
diff --git a/system/options.nix b/system/options.nix
index 71cb1a4e305d..7ee54f955c23 100644
--- a/system/options.nix
+++ b/system/options.nix
@@ -807,6 +807,34 @@
 
     };
 
+    bitlbee = {
+
+      enable = mkOption {
+        default = false;
+        description = ''
+          Whether the run the BitlBee IRC to other chat network gateway.
+          Running it allows you to access the MSN, Jabber, Yahoo! and ICQ chat
+          networks via an IRC client.
+        '';
+      };
+
+      interface = mkOption {
+        default = "127.0.0.1";
+        description = ''
+          The interface the BitlBee deamon will be listening to.  If `127.0.0.1',
+          only clients on the local host can connect to it; if `0.0.0.0', clients
+          can access it from any network interface.
+        '';
+      };
+
+      portNumber = mkOption {
+        default = "6667";
+        description = ''
+          Number of the port BitlBee will be listening to.
+        '';
+      };
+
+    };
 
     xserver = {
 
diff --git a/upstart-jobs/bitlbee.nix b/upstart-jobs/bitlbee.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..dca737d3a0b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/upstart-jobs/bitlbee.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+args: with args;
+{
+  name = "bitlbee";
+
+  users = [
+    { name = "bitlbee";
+      uid = (import ../system/ids.nix).uids.bitlbee;
+      description = "BitlBee user";
+      home = "/var/empty";
+    }
+  ];
+  
+  job = "
+description \"BitlBee IRC to other chat networks gateway\"
+
+start on network-interfaces/started
+stop on network-interfaces/stop
+
+start script
+    if ! test -d /var/lib/bitlbee
+    then
+        mkdir -p /var/lib/bitlbee
+    fi
+end script
+
+# FIXME: Eventually we want to use inetd instead of using `-D'.
+respawn ${bitlbee}/sbin/bitlbee -D -p ${portNumber} -i ${interface}
+  ";
+  
+}
diff --git a/upstart-jobs/default.nix b/upstart-jobs/default.nix
index 7731b5d67525..161e1b90ab44 100644
--- a/upstart-jobs/default.nix
+++ b/upstart-jobs/default.nix
@@ -236,6 +236,12 @@ let
       inherit config pkgs;
     })
 
+  ++ optional config.services.bitlbee.enable
+    (import ../upstart-jobs/bitlbee.nix {
+      inherit (pkgs) bitlbee;
+      inherit (config.services.bitlbee) portNumber interface;
+    })
+
   # ALSA sound support.
   ++ optional config.sound.enable
     (import ../upstart-jobs/alsa.nix {