diff --git a/sw/lib/ocaml/latlong.ml b/sw/lib/ocaml/latlong.ml
index fd2d834933..24480e6dc3 100644
--- a/sw/lib/ocaml/latlong.ml
+++ b/sw/lib/ocaml/latlong.ml
@@ -456,6 +456,19 @@ let of_string = fun s ->
 let string_of = fun geo ->
   Printf.sprintf "WGS84 %s" (string_degrees_of_geographic geo)
 
+let deg_of_string = fun s ->
+  match Str.split space s with
+    [lat_d; lat_m; lat_s] ->
+      decimal (ios lat_d) (ios lat_m) (fos lat_s)
+  | [lat_d; lat_m; lat_s; hemi] ->
+      let sign =
+	match hemi with
+	  "N" | "E" -> 1. | "S" | "W" -> -1.
+	| _ -> failwith (Printf.sprintf "N or S expected for hemispere in dms, found '%s'" hemi) in
+      sign *. decimal (ios lat_d) (ios lat_m) (fos lat_s)
+  | [deg] -> float_of_string deg
+  | _ -> invalid_arg (Printf.sprintf "Latlong.of_string: %s" s)
+
 
 let mercator_lat = fun l -> log (tan (pi/.4. +. 0.5*. l))
 let inv_mercator_lat = fun l -> 2. *. atan (exp l) -. pi/.2.
diff --git a/sw/lib/ocaml/latlong.mli b/sw/lib/ocaml/latlong.mli
index 044a6b888e..99add23629 100644
--- a/sw/lib/ocaml/latlong.mli
+++ b/sw/lib/ocaml/latlong.mli
@@ -137,6 +137,8 @@ val of_string : string -> geographic
 (** [of_string pos] Parses [pos] as "WGS84 45.678 1.2345", "UTM 500123 4500300 31" or "LBT2e 544945 1755355" *) 
 val string_of : geographic -> string
 (** Returns a "WGS84" annotated string *)
+val deg_of_string : string -> float
+(** Parse a deg min sec or a decimal angle *)
 
 val mercator_lat : float -> float
 (** wgs84 -> [-pi; pi] *)