Index: trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/io/OsmReader.java
===================================================================
--- trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/io/OsmReader.java	(revision 2085)
+++ trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/io/OsmReader.java	(revision 2086)
@@ -395,6 +395,9 @@
                     throwException(tr("Illegal value for attribute ''version'' on OSM primitive with id {0}. Got {1}", Long.toString(current.id), version));
                 }
-                if (current.version <= 0) {
+                if (current.version <= 0 && current.id > 0) {
                     throwException(tr("Illegal value for attribute ''version'' on OSM primitive with id {0}. Got {1}", Long.toString(current.id), version));
+                } else if (current.version < 0 && current.id  <=0) {
+                    System.out.println(tr("WARNING: normalizing value of attribute ''version'' of element {0} to 0. Got {1}", current.id, current.version));
+                    current.version = 0;
                 }
             } else {