diff --git a/DOCS/xml/Makefile b/DOCS/xml/Makefile
index 2aca1c3586..c7ce2e99f9 100644
--- a/DOCS/xml/Makefile
+++ b/DOCS/xml/Makefile
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ include ../../config.mak
 # Generated HTML files go here.
 HTML = ../HTML
 
+MAIN_XML_ALL = $(foreach lang,$(DOC_LANG_ALL),$(lang)/main.xml)
+
 all: html-chunked html-single
 
 help:
@@ -31,7 +33,7 @@ xmllint: xmllint.sh $(addprefix xmllint-,$(DOC_LANG_ALL))
 $(foreach lang,$(DOC_LANG_ALL),$(HTML)/$(lang)):
 	-mkdir -p $@
 
-html-chunk.xsl html-single.xsl xsltproc.sh xmllint.sh $(foreach lang,$(DOC_LANG_ALL),$(lang)/main.xml):
+html-chunk.xsl html-single.xsl xsltproc.sh xmllint.sh $(MAIN_XML_ALL):
 	sh configure
 
 define lang-def
@@ -51,7 +53,7 @@ clean:
 	rm -rf $(HTML)
 
 releaseclean:
-	rm -f $(foreach lang,$(DOC_LANG_ALL),$(lang)/main.xml)
+	rm -f $(MAIN_XML_ALL)
 	rm -f $$(find . -name *.xml -type l)
 	rm -f html-chunk.xsl html-single.xsl xsltproc.sh xmllint.sh