--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@
  * Support for context-aware methods during message extraction (#229, patch
    from David Rios)
  * "init" and "update" commands support "--no-wrap" option (#289)
+ * fix formatting of fraction in format_decimal() if the input value is a float
+   with more than 7 significant digits (#183)
 
 Version 0.9.6
 http://svn.edgewall.org/repos/babel/tags/0.9.6/

--- a/babel/numbers.py
+++ b/babel/numbers.py
@@ -478,6 +478,8 @@
         return '<%s %r>' % (type(self).__name__, self.pattern)
 
     def apply(self, value, locale, currency=None):
+        if isinstance(value, float):
+            value = Decimal(str(value))
         value *= self.scale
         is_negative = int(value < 0)
         if self.exp_prec: # Scientific notation

--- a/babel/tests/numbers.py
+++ b/babel/tests/numbers.py
@@ -28,6 +28,12 @@
         self.assertEqual(numbers.format_decimal(10.0**20, 
                                                 '#.00', locale='en_US'), 
                          '100000000000000000000.00')
+        # regression test for #183, fraction digits were not correctly cutted
+        # if the input was a float value and the value had more than 7 
+        # significant digits
+        self.assertEqual(u'12,345,678.05',
+                         numbers.format_decimal(12345678.051, '#,##0.00', 
+                         locale='en_US'))
 
     def test_subpatterns(self):
         self.assertEqual(numbers.format_decimal(-12345, '#,##0.##;-#',