diff --git a/tools/release/java/build.xml b/tools/release/java/build.xml
index 8608713b470..681e9155a93 100644
--- a/tools/release/java/build.xml
+++ b/tools/release/java/build.xml
@@ -1,42 +1,50 @@
 <!--
 /*
 *******************************************************************************
-* Copyright (C) 2006, International Business Machines Corporation and    *
+* Copyright (C) 2006-2008, International Business Machines Corporation and    *
 * others. All Rights Reserved.                                                *
 *******************************************************************************
 * This is the ant build file for ICU tools. 
 */
 -->
-<project name="API-Tools" default="main" basedir=".">
+<project name="release-tools" default="tools" basedir=".">
     <target name="init">
         <tstamp/>
         <property name="src.dir" value="src"/>
         <property name="build.dir" value="classes"/>
-        <property name="jar.file" value="cldr.jar"/>
-        <property name="jarSrc.file" value="cldrsrc.jar"/>
         <property file="api-report.properties" />
-        
+
         <mkdir dir="${build.dir}"/>
         <echo message="java home: ${java.home}"/>
         <echo message="java version: ${java.version}"/>
+        <echo message="java vendor: ${java.vm.vendor}"/>
         <echo message="ant java version: ${ant.java.version}"/>
         <echo message="${ant.version}"/>
-        <echo message="${basedir}"/>        
+        <echo message="${basedir}"/>
+
+        <condition property="is.sun.jdk14">
+            <and>
+                <equals arg1="${ant.java.version}" arg2="1.4"/>
+                <contains string="${java.vm.vendor}" substring="Sun Microsystems Inc"/>
+            </and>
+        </condition>
+        <fail unless="is.sun.jdk14" message="Sun JDK1.4 is required."/>
     </target>
 
-    <target name="doctools"  depends="init" description="build StableAPI classes">
-        <javac includes="com/ibm/icu/dev/tools/docs/*.java"
-            excludes="**/CVS/**/*"
+    <target name="tools"  depends="init" description="compile release tools">
+        <javac includes="**/*.java"
             srcdir="${src.dir}"
             destdir="${build.dir}"
             source="1.4"
             debug="on" deprecation="off"
             encoding="ascii"/>
     </target>             
+
     <target name="clean" depends="init" description="remove all build targets">
         <delete dir="${build.dir}"/>
     </target>
-    <target name="apireport" depends="doctools">    
+
+    <target name="apireport" depends="tools">    
         <java classname="com.ibm.icu.dev.tools.docs.StableAPI" fork="yes" failonerror="true">
             
             <arg value = "--oldver"/>
@@ -62,7 +70,7 @@
             
             <arg value = "--resultfile"/>
             <arg value = "${basedir}/APIChangeReport.html"/>
-    
+
             <classpath>
                 <pathelement location="${build.dir}"/>
                 <pathelement path="${java.class.path}/"/>
diff --git a/tools/release/java/src/com/ibm/icu/dev/tools/misc/NonAsciiFileDetector.java b/tools/release/java/src/com/ibm/icu/dev/tools/misc/NonAsciiFileDetector.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e28728244b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/release/java/src/com/ibm/icu/dev/tools/misc/NonAsciiFileDetector.java
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+/*
+ **********************************************************************
+ * Copyright (c) 2008, International Business Machines
+ * Corporation and others.  All Rights Reserved.
+ **********************************************************************
+ */
+package com.ibm.icu.dev.tools.misc;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.FileReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FilenameFilter;
+import java.util.Vector;
+
+public class NonAsciiFileDetector
+{
+    public static class ICUSourceFileFilter implements FilenameFilter
+    {
+        public boolean accept(File dir, String name) 
+        {
+            return name.endsWith(".cpp") || name.endsWith(".c") || name.endsWith(".h") || name.endsWith(".java");
+        }
+    }
+
+    public static int isNonAscii(File file) throws IOException
+    {
+        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
+        int line = 0;
+        while (true) {
+            String str = in.readLine();
+            if (str == null) {
+                in.close();
+                return -1;
+            }
+            for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i ++) {
+                if (str.charAt(i) > 0x7f) {
+                    System.out.println("Ascii test failed in " 
+                                       + file.getAbsolutePath() + " line "
+                                       + line + " string\n" + str);
+                    // non-latin1
+                    in.close();
+                    return line;
+                }
+            }
+            line ++;
+        }
+    }
+    
+    public static void listFiles(File file, 
+                                 FilenameFilter filter,
+                                 Vector list) throws IOException 
+    {
+        File files[] = file.listFiles();
+        if (files != null && files.length > 0) {
+            for (int i = 0; i < files.length; i ++) {
+                if (files[i].isDirectory()) {
+                    listFiles(files[i], filter, list);          
+                }
+                else {
+                    if (filter.accept(file, files[i].getName())) {
+                        list.add(files[i]);
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    public static Vector getNonAsciiFiles(String directory, 
+                                            FilenameFilter filter)
+                                            throws IOException
+    {
+        Vector files = new Vector();
+        Vector result = new Vector();
+        listFiles(new File(directory), filter, files);
+        int filecount = files.size();
+        if (filecount == 0) {
+            return null;
+        }
+        for (int i = 0; i < filecount; i ++) {
+             int isnonascii = isNonAscii((File)files.elementAt(i));
+             if (isnonascii != -1) {
+                 result.add(((File)files.elementAt(i)).getAbsolutePath());
+                 result.add(new Integer(isnonascii));
+             }
+        }
+        return result;
+    }
+
+    public static void main(String arg[])
+    {
+        try {
+            Vector nonascii = getNonAsciiFiles(arg[0], new ICUSourceFileFilter());
+            System.out.println();
+            if (nonascii != null && nonascii.size() > 0) {
+                for (int i = 0; i < nonascii.size(); i += 2) {
+                     System.out.println("Non ascii files " 
+                            + (String)nonascii.elementAt(i) + " " 
+                            + ((Integer)nonascii.elementAt(i + 1)).intValue());
+                }
+            }
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            e.printStackTrace();
+        }
+    }
+}
+