diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index a7ac04b..9073a86 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -251,10 +251,10 @@ clean:
 
 VERSION ?= $(shell cat VERSION)
 
-dist: qemu-$(VERSION).tar.bz2
+dist: qemu-$(VERSION).tar.xz
 
-qemu-%.tar.bz2:
-	$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/make-release "$(SRC_PATH)" "$(patsubst qemu-%.tar.bz2,%,$@)"
+qemu-%.tar.xz:
+	$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/make-release "$(SRC_PATH)" "$(patsubst qemu-%.tar.xz,%,$@)"
 
 distclean: clean
 	rm -f config-host.mak config-host.h* config-host.ld $(DOCS) qemu-options.texi qemu-img-cmds.texi qemu-monitor.texi
diff --git a/scripts/make-release b/scripts/make-release
index 196c755..2237afd 100755
--- a/scripts/make-release
+++ b/scripts/make-release
@@ -20,5 +20,5 @@ git checkout "v${version}"
 git submodule update --init
 rm -rf .git roms/*/.git
 popd
-tar cfj ${destination}.tar.bz2 ${destination}
+XZ_OPT=-9 tar cfJ ${destination}.tar.xz ${destination}
 rm -rf ${destination}