diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index aade3a167..3aeb017a4 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+2.7.0
+===
+
+First unstable release tarball for GNOME 2.6.
+
+Thanks to Anders Carlsson, Elijah Newren, Rob Adams, James Cape,
+Thomas Fitzimmons, Calum Benson for fixes in this release.
+
 2.6.2
 ===
 
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index daebbf3e1..15f257040 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ AM_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h)
 
 # 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987 
 # releases on a branch add a 4th version like 2.4.21.1
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(metacity, 2.6.2)
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(metacity, 2.7.0)
 
 # Honor aclocal flags
 ACLOCAL="$ACLOCAL $ACLOCAL_FLAGS"
@@ -439,4 +439,4 @@ metacity-$VERSION:
 	Xsync:                    ${found_xsync}
         Deprecated config dialog: ${enable_config_dialog}
 "
-## echo "This is the UNSTABLE branch of metacity, use 2.4.x for stable (gnome-2-2 branch in CVS)"
+echo "This is the UNSTABLE branch of metacity, use 2.6.x for stable (gnome-2-4 branch in CVS)"