diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index b04b1de29..654636195 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/make -f
 
 SHELL    := sh -e
-DEB_HOST_ARCH  := $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH)
-DEB_BUILD_ARCH := $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_ARCH)
 SOURCE   := $(shell dpkg-parsechangelog | sed -ne 's,^Source: *\(.*\)$$,\1,p')
 VERSION_DEBIAN := $(shell dpkg-parsechangelog | sed -ne 's,^Version: *\(.*\)$$,\1,p')
 VERSION  := $(shell echo "$(VERSION_DEBIAN)" | sed -e 's,-[^-]*$$,,')
diff --git a/debian/rules.defs b/debian/rules.defs
index 06b3f3edb..b2664867d 100644
--- a/debian/rules.defs
+++ b/debian/rules.defs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
+include /usr/share/dpkg/default.mk
+
 BUILD_DIR = debian/build
 STAMPS_DIR = debian/stamps
 TEMPLATES_DIR = debian/templates
-
diff --git a/debian/rules.real b/debian/rules.real
index 9be92ab0b..d173b6f0c 100644
--- a/debian/rules.real
+++ b/debian/rules.real
@@ -2,8 +2,6 @@ export DH_OPTIONS
 
 include debian/rules.defs
 
-DEB_BUILD_ARCH := $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_ARCH)
-
 # VERSION_DEBIAN is the package source version; VERSION_DEBIAN_FULL
 # includes any binNMU part.
 VERSION_DEBIAN_FULL := $(shell dpkg-parsechangelog | sed -ne 's,^Version: *\(.*\)$$,\1,p')