diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Target.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Target.java
index 21304d73d..0a0f9f23a 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Target.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Target.java
@@ -129,9 +129,9 @@ public class Target implements TaskContainer {
 
                 // Make sure the dependency is not empty string
                 if ("".equals(token) || ",".equals(token)) {
-                    throw new BuildException("Syntax Error: Depend "
-                        + "attribute for target \"" + getName()
-                        + "\" has an empty string for dependency.");
+                    throw new BuildException("Syntax Error: depends "
+                        + "attribute of target \"" + getName()
+                        + "\" has an empty string as dependency.");
                 }
 
                 addDependency(token);
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/helper/ProjectHelper2.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/helper/ProjectHelper2.java
index 3bbd08707..a9784d8e4 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/helper/ProjectHelper2.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/helper/ProjectHelper2.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright  2000-2005 The Apache Software Foundation
+ * Copyright  2000-2006 The Apache Software Foundation
  *
  *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  *  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -817,10 +817,6 @@ public class ProjectHelper2 extends ProjectHelper {
                     "Duplicate target '" + name + "'", target.getLocation());
             }
 
-            if (depends.length() > 0) {
-                target.setDepends(depends);
-            }
-
             Hashtable projectTargets = project.getTargets();
             boolean   usedTarget = false;
             // If the name has not already been defined define it
@@ -834,6 +830,10 @@ public class ProjectHelper2 extends ProjectHelper {
                 usedTarget = true;
             }
 
+            if (depends.length() > 0) {
+                target.setDepends(depends);
+            }
+
             if (context.isIgnoringProjectTag() && context.getCurrentProjectName() != null
                 && context.getCurrentProjectName().length() != 0) {
                 // In an impored file (and not completely