diff --git a/Lib/tarfile.py b/Lib/tarfile.py
index 9d0061592ef..9bfad250cfb 100644
--- a/Lib/tarfile.py
+++ b/Lib/tarfile.py
@@ -616,6 +616,22 @@ class ExFileObject(object):
         """Close the file object.
         """
         self.closed = True
+
+    def __iter__(self):
+        """Get an iterator over the file object.
+        """
+        if self.closed:
+            raise ValueError("I/O operation on closed file")
+        return self
+
+    def next(self):
+        """Get the next item from the file iterator.
+        """
+        result = self.readline()
+        if not result:
+            raise StopIteration
+        return result
+        
 #class ExFileObject
 
 #------------------
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
index 0fae5efcd40..a6c4c4a4f95 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
@@ -91,6 +91,16 @@ class ReadTest(BaseTest):
             self.assert_(lines1 == lines2,
                          "_FileObject.readline() does not work correctly")
 
+    def test_iter(self):
+        # Test iteration over ExFileObject.
+        if self.sep != "|":
+            filename = "0-REGTYPE-TEXT"
+            self.tar.extract(filename, dirname())
+            lines1 = file(os.path.join(dirname(), filename), "rU").readlines()
+            lines2 = [line for line in self.tar.extractfile(filename)]
+            self.assert_(lines1 == lines2,
+                         "ExFileObject iteration does not work correctly")
+
     def test_seek(self):
         """Test seek() method of _FileObject, incl. random reading.
         """
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index a128cc78234..0912e00e5dc 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ Extension Modules
 Library
 -------
 
+- Patch #1107973: Allow to iterate over the lines of a tarfile.ExFileObject.
+
 - Patch #1104111: Alter setup.py --help and --help-commands.
 
 - Patch #1121234: Properly cleanup _exit and tkerror commands.