diff --git a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/ICUConfig.properties b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/ICUConfig.properties
index fa00e2db734..c25d565896f 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/ICUConfig.properties
+++ b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/ICUConfig.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #*
 #*******************************************************************************
-#* Copyright (C) 2008, International Business Machines Corporation and         *
+#* Copyright (C) 2008-2010, International Business Machines Corporation and    *
 #* others. All Rights Reserved.                                                *
 #*******************************************************************************
 #* This is the properties contains ICU runtime configuration 
@@ -11,3 +11,13 @@
 # factory method. [ ICU | JDK ]
 #
 com.ibm.icu.util.TimeZone.DefaultTimeZoneType = ICU
+
+#
+# By default, DecimalFormat uses some internal equivalent character
+# data in addition to ones in DecimalFormatSymbols for parsing
+# decimal/grouping separators.  When this property is true,
+# DecimalFormat uses separators configured by DecimalFormatSymbols only
+# and does not try to find a match in the internal equivalent character
+# data.
+#
+com.ibm.icu.text.DecimalFormat.SkipExtendedSeparatorParsing = false
diff --git a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/DecimalFormat.java b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/DecimalFormat.java
index 23557bbbe27..c29ab65d90d 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/DecimalFormat.java
+++ b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/DecimalFormat.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.Set;
 
+import com.ibm.icu.impl.ICUConfig;
 import com.ibm.icu.impl.UCharacterProperty;
 import com.ibm.icu.impl.Utility;
 import com.ibm.icu.lang.UCharacter;
@@ -2148,8 +2149,12 @@ public class DecimalFormat extends NumberFormat {
             int leadingZeroCount = 0;
 
             // equivalent grouping and decimal support
-            UnicodeSet decimalEquiv = getEquivalentDecimals(decimal, strictParse);
-            UnicodeSet groupEquiv = strictParse ? strictDefaultGroupingSeparators : defaultGroupingSeparators;
+            boolean skipExtendedSeparatorParsing = ICUConfig.get("com.ibm.icu.text.DecimalFormat.SkipExtendedSeparatorParsing", "false")
+                .equals("true");
+
+            UnicodeSet decimalEquiv = skipExtendedSeparatorParsing ? EMPTY_SET : getEquivalentDecimals(decimal, strictParse);
+            UnicodeSet groupEquiv = skipExtendedSeparatorParsing ? EMPTY_SET :
+                (strictParse ? strictDefaultGroupingSeparators : defaultGroupingSeparators);
 
             // We have to track digitCount ourselves, because digits.count will
             // pin when the maximum allowable digits is reached.
diff --git a/icu4j/main/tests/core/src/com/ibm/icu/dev/test/format/NumberFormatTest.java b/icu4j/main/tests/core/src/com/ibm/icu/dev/test/format/NumberFormatTest.java
index d8f2c07b636..3679409beed 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/tests/core/src/com/ibm/icu/dev/test/format/NumberFormatTest.java
+++ b/icu4j/main/tests/core/src/com/ibm/icu/dev/test/format/NumberFormatTest.java
@@ -2587,5 +2587,25 @@ public class NumberFormatTest extends com.ibm.icu.dev.test.TestFmwk {
 
         expect(fmt, "2\uFF61345.67", 2345.67);
 
+        // Ticket#7218
+        //
+        // Lenient separator parsing is enabled by default.
+        // A space character below is interpreted as a
+        // group separator, even ',' is used as grouping
+        // separator in the symbols.
+        sym.setGroupingSeparator(',');
+        fmt.setDecimalFormatSymbols(sym);
+
+        expect(fmt, "12 345", 12345);
+
+        // When the property SkipExtendedSeparatorParsing is true,
+        // DecimalFormat does not use the extended equivalent separator
+        // data and only uses the one in DecimalFormatSymbols.
+        System.setProperty("com.ibm.icu.text.DecimalFormat.SkipExtendedSeparatorParsing", "true");
+
+        expect(fmt, "23 456", 23);
+
+        // Set the configuration back to the default
+        System.setProperty("com.ibm.icu.text.DecimalFormat.SkipExtendedSeparatorParsing", "false");
     }
 }