new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/babel/compat.py
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2007-2011 Edgewall Software
+# All rights reserved.
+#
+# This software is licensed as described in the file COPYING, which
+# you should have received as part of this distribution. The terms
+# are also available at http://babel.edgewall.org/wiki/License.
+#
+# This software consists of voluntary contributions made by many
+# individuals. For the exact contribution history, see the revision
+# history and logs, available at http://babel.edgewall.org/log/.
+
+try:
+    from xml.etree import ElementTree
+except ImportError:
+    from elementtree import ElementTree
+
+try:
+    any = any
+except NameError:
+    def any(iterable):
+        return filter(None, list(iterable))
+
+try:
+    import threading
+except ImportError:
+    import dummy_threading as threading
+

--- a/babel/localedata.py
+++ b/babel/localedata.py
@@ -19,12 +19,10 @@
 
 import os
 import cPickle as pickle
-try:
-    import threading
-except ImportError:
-    import dummy_threading as threading
 from UserDict import DictMixin
 
+from babel.compat import threading
+
 __all__ = ['exists', 'locale_identifiers', 'load']
 __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 

--- a/scripts/import_cldr.py
+++ b/scripts/import_cldr.py
@@ -17,27 +17,19 @@
 import os
 import re
 import sys
-try:
-    from xml.etree.ElementTree import parse
-except ImportError:
-    from elementtree.ElementTree import parse
 
 # Make sure we're using Babel source, and not some previously installed version
 sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0]), '..'))
 
 from babel import dates, numbers
+from babel.compat import any, ElementTree
 from babel.plural import PluralRule
 from babel.localedata import Alias
 
+parse = ElementTree.parse
 weekdays = {'mon': 0, 'tue': 1, 'wed': 2, 'thu': 3, 'fri': 4, 'sat': 5,
             'sun': 6}
 
-try:
-    any
-except NameError:
-    def any(iterable):
-        return filter(None, list(iterable))
-
 
 def _text(elem):
     buf = [elem.text or '']