diff --git a/scrapy/http/response/html.py b/scrapy/http/response/html.py
index f4236f426..60ca40edf 100644
--- a/scrapy/http/response/html.py
+++ b/scrapy/http/response/html.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ class HtmlResponse(TextResponse):
     _content_re   = _template % ('content', r'(?P<mime>[^;]+);\s*charset=(?P<charset>[\w-]+)')
     _content2_re   = _template % ('charset', r'(?P<charset>[\w-]+)')
 
-    METATAG_RE  = re.compile(r'<meta\s+%s\s+%s' % (_httpequiv_re, _content_re), re.I)
+    METATAG_RE  = re.compile(r'<meta(?:\s+(?:%s|%s)){2}' % (_httpequiv_re, _content_re), re.I)
     METATAG2_RE  = re.compile(r'<meta\s+%s' % _content2_re, re.I)
 
     @memoizemethod_noargs
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_http_response.py b/scrapy/tests/test_http_response.py
index 46314c1b1..1fcc859da 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_http_response.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_http_response.py
@@ -226,7 +226,6 @@ class HtmlResponseTest(TextResponseTest):
     response_class = HtmlResponse
 
     def test_html_encoding(self):
-        
         body = """<html><head><title>Some page</title><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
         </head><body>Price: \xa3100</body></html>'
         """
@@ -257,6 +256,16 @@ class HtmlResponseTest(TextResponseTest):
         r1 = self.response_class("http://www.example.com", body=body)
         self._assert_response_values(r1, 'gb2312', body)
 
+    def test_httpequiv_meta(self):
+        body = '''<html><head><meta content="text/html; charset=gb18030" http-equiv="Content-Type" /></head></html>'''
+        response = self.response_class('http://example.com', body=body)
+        self._assert_response_values(response, 'gb18030', body)
+
+        body = '''<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=gb18030" /></head></html>'''
+        response = self.response_class('http://example.com', body=body)
+        self._assert_response_values(response, 'gb18030', body)
+
+
 
 class XmlResponseTest(TextResponseTest):
 
