diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_parse_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_parse_command.c
index 4896f2afb9229b5d69c810e3d19121a842198ae7..9f739ae01816a3ad172eadffebf3e50d30b29e98 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_parse_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_parse_command.c
@@ -1627,26 +1627,91 @@ static int
 qemuParseCommandLineMem(virDomainDefPtr dom,
                         const char *val)
 {
-    unsigned long long mem;
+    unsigned long long mem = 0;
+    unsigned long long size = 0;
+    unsigned long long maxmem = 0;
+    unsigned int slots = 0;
     char *end;
+    size_t i;
+    int nkws;
+    char **kws;
+    char **vals;
+    int n;
+    int ret = -1;
 
-    if (virStrToLong_ull(val, &end, 10, &mem) < 0) {
+    if (qemuParseKeywords(val, &kws, &vals, &nkws, 1) < 0) {
         virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
-                       _("cannot parse memory level '%s'"), val);
-        return -1;
+                       _("cannot parse memory '%s'"), val);
+        goto cleanup;
     }
 
-    if (virScaleInteger(&mem, end, 1024*1024, ULLONG_MAX) < 0) {
-        virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
-                       _("cannot scale memory: %s"),
-                       virGetLastErrorMessage());
-        return -1;
+    for (i = 0; i < nkws; i++) {
+        if (vals[i] == NULL) {
+            if (i > 0) {
+                virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
+                               _("cannot parse memory '%s'"), val);
+                goto cleanup;
+            }
+            if (virStrToLong_ull(kws[i], &end, 10, &mem) < 0) {
+                virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
+                               _("cannot parse memory value '%s'"), kws[i]);
+                goto cleanup;
+            }
+            if (virScaleInteger(&mem, end, 1024*1024, ULLONG_MAX) < 0) {
+                virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
+                               _("cannot scale memory: %s"),
+                               virGetLastErrorMessage());
+                goto cleanup;
+            }
+
+            size = mem;
+
+        } else {
+            if (STREQ(kws[i], "size") || STREQ(kws[i], "maxmem")) {
+                if (virStrToLong_ull(vals[i], &end, 10, &mem) < 0) {
+                    virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
+                                   _("cannot parse memory value '%s'"), vals[i]);
+                    goto cleanup;
+                }
+                if (virScaleInteger(&mem, end, 1024*1024, ULLONG_MAX) < 0) {
+                    virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
+                                   _("cannot scale memory: %s"),
+                                   virGetLastErrorMessage());
+                    goto cleanup;
+                }
+
+                STREQ(kws[i], "size") ? (size = mem) : (maxmem = mem);
+
+            }
+            if (STREQ(kws[i], "slots")) {
+                if (virStrToLong_i(vals[i], &end, 10, &n) < 0) {
+                    virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
+                                   _("cannot parse slots value '%s'"), vals[i]);
+                    goto cleanup;
+                }
+
+               slots = n;
+
+            }
+        }
     }
 
-    virDomainDefSetMemoryTotal(dom, mem / 1024);
-    dom->mem.cur_balloon = mem / 1024;
+    virDomainDefSetMemoryTotal(dom, size / 1024);
+    dom->mem.cur_balloon = size / 1024;
+    dom->mem.memory_slots = slots;
+    dom->mem.max_memory = maxmem / 1024;
 
-    return 0;
+    ret = 0;
+
+ cleanup:
+    for (i = 0; i < nkws; i++) {
+        VIR_FREE(kws[i]);
+        VIR_FREE(vals[i]);
+    }
+    VIR_FREE(kws);
+    VIR_FREE(vals);
+
+    return ret;
 }
 
 
diff --git a/tests/qemuargv2xmldata/qemuargv2xml-mem-scale-maxmemory.args b/tests/qemuargv2xmldata/qemuargv2xml-mem-scale-maxmemory.args
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..44f8590c9bddbcf1cc4d390b5dc353d2b132e323
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuargv2xmldata/qemuargv2xml-mem-scale-maxmemory.args
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+LC_ALL=C \
+PATH=/bin \
+HOME=/home/test \
+USER=test \
+LOGNAME=test \
+QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=none \
+/usr/bin/qemu-system-i686 \
+-name QEMUGuest1 \
+-S \
+-M pc \
+-m size=8G,slots=16,maxmem=16G \
+-smp 1,maxcpus=2,sockets=2,cores=1,threads=1 \
+-uuid c7a5fdbd-edaf-9455-926a-d65c16db1809 \
+-nographic \
+-monitor unix:/tmp/test-monitor,server,nowait \
+-no-acpi \
+-boot c \
+-usb \
+-drive file=/dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest1,format=raw,if=ide,bus=0,unit=0 \
+-net none \
+-serial none \
+-parallel none
diff --git a/tests/qemuargv2xmldata/qemuargv2xml-mem-scale-maxmemory.xml b/tests/qemuargv2xmldata/qemuargv2xml-mem-scale-maxmemory.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..44431d8f5a811b8d6c5a0bd68e6ac873c036e1f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuargv2xmldata/qemuargv2xml-mem-scale-maxmemory.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+<domain type='qemu'>
+  <name>QEMUGuest1</name>
+  <uuid>c7a5fdbd-edaf-9455-926a-d65c16db1809</uuid>
+  <maxMemory slots='16' unit='KiB'>16777216</maxMemory>
+  <memory unit='KiB'>8388608</memory>
+  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>8388608</currentMemory>
+  <vcpu placement='static' current='1'>2</vcpu>
+  <os>
+    <type arch='i686' machine='pc'>hvm</type>
+    <boot dev='hd'/>
+  </os>
+  <cpu>
+    <topology sockets='2' cores='1' threads='1'/>
+  </cpu>
+  <clock offset='utc'/>
+  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
+  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
+  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
+  <devices>
+    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-i686</emulator>
+    <disk type='block' device='disk'>
+      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
+      <source dev='/dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest1'/>
+      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
+      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
+    </disk>
+    <controller type='usb' index='0'>
+      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x2'/>
+    </controller>
+    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/>
+    <controller type='ide' index='0'>
+      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/>
+    </controller>
+    <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
+    <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'/>
+    <memballoon model='none'/>
+  </devices>
+</domain>
diff --git a/tests/qemuargv2xmltest.c b/tests/qemuargv2xmltest.c
index 5d261afa60f6c9869165e40f8d704bba9c3a810c..8e47c004180b4e6e5b4e3c7fe78012954bff7a10 100644
--- a/tests/qemuargv2xmltest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuargv2xmltest.c
@@ -265,6 +265,7 @@ mymain(void)
     DO_TEST("hostdev-pci-address");
 
     DO_TEST("mem-scale");
+    DO_TEST("mem-scale-maxmemory");
     DO_TEST("smp");
 
     DO_TEST("hyperv");