diff --git a/prism/src/prism/Prism.java b/prism/src/prism/Prism.java
index a03d0781..4ce7050f 100644
--- a/prism/src/prism/Prism.java
+++ b/prism/src/prism/Prism.java
@@ -1424,7 +1424,30 @@ public class Prism extends PrismComponent implements PrismSettingsListener
 	 */
 	public ModulesFile importPepaString(String s) throws PrismException, PrismLangException
 	{
-		String prismModelString  = new PrismLanguageImporter().convert("pepa", s);
+		File pepaFile = null;
+		String modelString;
+
+		// create temporary file containing pepa model
+		try {
+			pepaFile = File.createTempFile("tempPepa" + System.currentTimeMillis(), ".pepa");
+			FileWriter write = new FileWriter(pepaFile);
+			write.write(s);
+			write.close();
+		} catch (IOException e) {
+			if (pepaFile != null)
+				pepaFile.delete();
+			throw new PrismException("Couldn't create temporary file for PEPA conversion");
+		}
+
+		// compile pepa file to string
+		try {
+			modelString = pepa.compiler.Main.compile("" + pepaFile);
+		} catch (pepa.compiler.InternalError e) {
+			if (pepaFile != null)
+				pepaFile.delete();
+			throw new PrismException("Could not import PEPA file:\n" + e.getMessage());
+		}
+
 		// parse string as prism model and return
 		return parseModelString(modelString);
 	}