diff --git a/spring-ws-security/pom.xml b/spring-ws-security/pom.xml
index fcca648b..d0489d34 100644
--- a/spring-ws-security/pom.xml
+++ b/spring-ws-security/pom.xml
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@
                     <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
                 </exclusion>
             </exclusions>
+            <optional>true</optional>
         </dependency>
 
         <dependency>