diff --git a/minproto.leg b/minproto.leg
index 006c917..f980578 100644
--- a/minproto.leg
+++ b/minproto.leg
@@ -4010,10 +4010,21 @@ oop prim_String_pop(oop func, oop self, oop args, oop env)
 }
 
 oop prim_String_asInteger(oop func, oop self, oop args, oop env)
-{                                                       assert(is(String, self));
+{                                                       assert(is(Object, args));
+    int argc     = _get(args, Object,isize);            assert(is(String, self));
+    if (argc > 1) fatal("String.asInteger: expected either 0 or 1 arguments, got %d\n", argc);
+
     char *str = String_content(self); // ensure nul terminator
     char *end = 0;
-    long value = strtol(str, &end, 0);
+    long value;
+
+    if (argc == 1) {
+        oop base = _get(args, Object,indexed)[0];
+        value = strtol(str, &end, integerValue(base, "String.asInteger"));
+    } else {
+        value = strtol(str, &end, 0);
+    }
+
     if (*end) return nil;
     return newInteger(value);
 }
diff --git a/test.txt b/test.txt
index 0255044..48bf644 100644
--- a/test.txt
+++ b/test.txt
@@ -378,6 +378,12 @@ ast = (`6 * @myNode;); // user-defined node in AST
 
 print("AST eval => ", eval(ast), "\n");
 
+print("String to int conversion\n");
+print("11111111".asInteger(2), "\n");
+print("377".asInteger(8), "\n");
+print("255".asInteger(), "\n");
+print("FF".asInteger(16), "\n");
+
 for (i from 0 to 10) 		     print(i, " ");  print("\n");
 for (i from 10 to 0) 		     print(i, " ");  print("\n");
 for (i in 10)        		     print(i, " ");  print("\n");