diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 63a49e305c3e4b811c774ec5423bc846a65f3cff..b6caaf7c8f6d457a41a2552641ae24f3b68c2c73 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -6376,11 +6376,13 @@ qemuBuildSmpArgStr(const virDomainDef *def,
 }
 
 static int
-qemuBuildNumaArgStr(const virDomainDef *def, virCommandPtr cmd)
+qemuBuildNumaArgStr(const virDomainDef *def,
+                    virCommandPtr cmd,
+                    virQEMUCapsPtr qemuCaps)
 {
     size_t i;
     virBuffer buf = VIR_BUFFER_INITIALIZER;
-    char *cpumask = NULL;
+    char *cpumask = NULL, *tmpmask = NULL, *next = NULL;
     int ret = -1;
 
     for (i = 0; i < def->cpu->ncells; i++) {
@@ -6392,7 +6394,8 @@ qemuBuildNumaArgStr(const virDomainDef *def, virCommandPtr cmd)
         if (!(cpumask = virBitmapFormat(def->cpu->cells[i].cpumask)))
             goto cleanup;
 
-        if (strchr(cpumask, ',')) {
+        if (strchr(cpumask, ',') &&
+            !virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_NUMA)) {
             virReportError(VIR_ERR_CONFIG_UNSUPPORTED, "%s",
                            _("disjoint NUMA cpu ranges are not supported "
                              "with this QEMU"));
@@ -6401,15 +6404,14 @@ qemuBuildNumaArgStr(const virDomainDef *def, virCommandPtr cmd)
 
         virCommandAddArg(cmd, "-numa");
         virBufferAsprintf(&buf, "node,nodeid=%zu", i);
-        virBufferAddLit(&buf, ",cpus=");
 
-        /* Up through qemu 1.4, -numa does not accept a cpus
-         * argument any more complex than start-stop.
-         *
-         * XXX For qemu 1.5, the syntax has not yet been decided;
-         * but when it is, we need a capability bit and
-         * translation of our cpumask into the qemu syntax.  */
-        virBufferAdd(&buf, cpumask, -1);
+        for (tmpmask = cpumask; tmpmask; tmpmask = next) {
+            if ((next = strchr(tmpmask, ',')))
+                *(next++) = '\0';
+            virBufferAddLit(&buf, ",cpus=");
+            virBufferAdd(&buf, tmpmask, -1);
+        }
+
         virBufferAsprintf(&buf, ",mem=%d", cellmem);
 
         virCommandAddArgBuffer(cmd, &buf);
@@ -7313,7 +7315,7 @@ qemuBuildCommandLine(virConnectPtr conn,
     VIR_FREE(smp);
 
     if (def->cpu && def->cpu->ncells)
-        if (qemuBuildNumaArgStr(def, cmd) < 0)
+        if (qemuBuildNumaArgStr(def, cmd, qemuCaps) < 0)
             goto error;
 
     if (virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_UUID))
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-disjoint.args b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-disjoint.args
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..073e84b4d6567caa5b3a8ebee8f9c5d2cb5fea62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-disjoint.args
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+LC_ALL=C PATH=/bin HOME=/home/test USER=test LOGNAME=test QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=none \
+/usr/bin/qemu -S -M pc \
+-m 214 -smp 16 -numa node,nodeid=0,cpus=0-3,cpus=8-11,mem=107 \
+-numa node,nodeid=1,cpus=4-7,cpus=12-15,mem=107 -nographic -monitor \
+unix:/tmp/test-monitor,server,nowait -no-acpi -boot n -usb -net none -serial none \
+-parallel none
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-disjoint.xml b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-disjoint.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..474a238810253ab2e6a27a9b8a109cac890d9720
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-disjoint.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+<domain type='qemu'>
+  <name>QEMUGuest1</name>
+  <uuid>c7a5fdbd-edaf-9455-926a-d65c16db1809</uuid>
+  <memory unit='KiB'>219100</memory>
+  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>219100</currentMemory>
+  <vcpu placement='static'>16</vcpu>
+  <os>
+    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc'>hvm</type>
+    <boot dev='network'/>
+  </os>
+  <cpu>
+    <topology sockets='2' cores='4' threads='2'/>
+    <numa>
+      <cell id='0' cpus='0-3,8-11' memory='109550'/>
+      <cell id='1' cpus='4-7,12-15' memory='109550'/>
+    </numa>
+  </cpu>
+  <clock offset='utc'/>
+  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
+  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
+  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
+  <devices>
+    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu</emulator>
+    <controller type='usb' index='0'/>
+    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/>
+    <memballoon model='virtio'/>
+  </devices>
+</domain>
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index 3a76aa6beeb886c2e7cccb45d9df8d48f6ce35a4..1fd106679e3982e391e6a1aa5f67111e327b46f4 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -1179,6 +1179,8 @@ mymain(void)
     DO_TEST("cpu-numa1", NONE);
     DO_TEST("cpu-numa2", QEMU_CAPS_SMP_TOPOLOGY);
     DO_TEST_PARSE_ERROR("cpu-numa3", NONE);
+    DO_TEST_FAILURE("cpu-numa-disjoint", NONE);
+    DO_TEST("cpu-numa-disjoint", QEMU_CAPS_NUMA);
     DO_TEST("cpu-host-model", NONE);
     skipLegacyCPUs = true;
     DO_TEST("cpu-host-model-fallback", NONE);
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
index cbeabad3073a664844a2c155aed64d3467642b62..cefe05b2b67aed7633b037da04f1110a5b62f6fb 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
@@ -372,6 +372,7 @@ mymain(void)
 
     DO_TEST_DIFFERENT("cpu-numa1");
     DO_TEST_DIFFERENT("cpu-numa2");
+    DO_TEST("cpu-numa-disjoint");
 
     DO_TEST_DIFFERENT("numatune-auto-prefer");
     DO_TEST_DIFFERENT("numatune-memnode");