diff -ur libnfnetlink-1.0.0/include/libnfnetlink/libnfnetlink.h libnfnetlink-1.0.0.new/include/libnfnetlink/libnfnetlink.h
--- libnfnetlink-1.0.0/include/libnfnetlink/libnfnetlink.h	2009-06-13 17:17:56.000000000 +0200
+++ libnfnetlink-1.0.0.new/include/libnfnetlink/libnfnetlink.h	2009-10-28 19:23:00.000000000 +0100
@@ -61,6 +61,8 @@
 struct nfnl_handle;
 struct nfnl_subsys_handle;
 
+extern int nfnl_set_nonblocking_mode(struct nfnl_handle *h);
+extern int nfnl_unset_nonblocking_mode(struct nfnl_handle *h);
 extern int nfnl_fd(struct nfnl_handle *h);
 extern unsigned int nfnl_portid(const struct nfnl_handle *h);
 
diff -ur libnfnetlink-1.0.0/src/libnfnetlink.c libnfnetlink-1.0.0.new/src/libnfnetlink.c
--- libnfnetlink-1.0.0/src/libnfnetlink.c	2009-06-13 17:17:56.000000000 +0200
+++ libnfnetlink-1.0.0.new/src/libnfnetlink.c	2009-10-28 19:24:36.000000000 +0100
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <time.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
 #include <netinet/in.h>
 #include <assert.h>
 #include <linux/types.h>
@@ -80,6 +81,7 @@
 #define		NFNL_MAX_SUBSYS			16 /* enough for now */
 
 #define NFNL_F_SEQTRACK_ENABLED		(1 << 0)
+#define NFNL_F_NONBLOCKING_MODE		(1 << 1)
 
 struct nfnl_handle {
 	int			fd;
@@ -260,6 +262,49 @@
 }
 
 /**
+ * nfnl_set_nonblocking_mode - set non blocking mode for netlink socket
+ * @h: nfnetlink handler
+ */
+int nfnl_set_nonblocking_mode(struct nfnl_handle *h)
+{
+	int ret;
+
+	ret = fcntl(h->fd, F_GETFL);
+	if (ret < 0)
+		return ret;
+
+	ret = fcntl(h->fd, F_SETFL, ret | O_NONBLOCK);
+	if (ret < 0)
+		return ret;
+
+	h->flags |= NFNL_F_NONBLOCKING_MODE;
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+
+/**
+ * nfnl_unset_nonblocking_mode - unset non blocking mode for netlink socket
+ * @h: nfnetlink handler
+ */
+int nfnl_unset_nonblocking_mode(struct nfnl_handle *h)
+{
+	int ret;
+
+	ret = fcntl(h->fd, F_GETFL);
+	if (ret < 0)
+		return ret;
+
+	ret = fcntl(h->fd, F_SETFL, ret & ~O_NONBLOCK);
+	if (ret < 0)
+		return ret;
+
+	h->flags &= ~NFNL_F_NONBLOCKING_MODE;
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/**
  * nfnl_subsys_open - open a netlink subsystem
  * @nfnlh: libnfnetlink handle
  * @subsys_id: which nfnetlink subsystem we are interested in
@@ -1529,7 +1574,7 @@
 
 	assert(h);
 
-	while (1) {
+	do {
 		unsigned char buf[h->rcv_buffer_size]
 			__attribute__ ((aligned));
 
@@ -1543,8 +1588,9 @@
 
 		ret = nfnl_process(h, buf, ret);
 		if (ret <= NFNL_CB_STOP)
-			break; 
-	}
+			break;
+
+	} while (!(h->flags & NFNL_F_NONBLOCKING_MODE));
 
 	return ret;
 }