diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 66fb43f..59ba4ab 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -624,14 +624,11 @@ else
 
     # Set opening and closing symbols to make setup.py compatible for versions 2 and 3
     if test ${PYTHON_VERSION} '<' 3; then
-      PYTHON_OPEN=" "
-      PYTHON_CLOSE=""
+      PYTHON_RELATIVE_IMPORT=" "
     else
-      PYTHON_OPEN="("
-      PYTHON_CLOSE=")"
+      PYTHON_RELATIVE_IMPORT="."
     fi
-    AC_SUBST(PYTHON_OPEN)  
-    AC_SUBST(PYTHON_CLOSE)
+    AC_SUBST(PYTHON_RELATIVE_IMPORT)  
 
     # Do we have distutils?
     AC_MSG_CHECKING([for the distutils Python package])
diff --git a/pyext/ctools/__init__.py.in b/pyext/ctools/__init__.py.in
index 57a41a0..9ca877e 100644
--- a/pyext/ctools/__init__.py.in
+++ b/pyext/ctools/__init__.py.in
@@ -21,12 +21,7 @@
 import gammalib
 
 # Import sub modules
-#from .tools import *
-import sys
-if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
-    from tools import *
-else:
-    from .tools import *
+from @PYTHON_RELATIVE_IMPORT@tools import *
 
 # Remove swig register stuff
 bad_entries = [entry for entry in list(locals())