diff -r c0224cfe92f4 django/core/management/commands/loaddata.py
--- a/django/core/management/commands/loaddata.py	Sat Nov 29 11:51:41 2008 +0000
+++ b/django/core/management/commands/loaddata.py	Sat Nov 29 23:02:58 2008 -0500
@@ -3,7 +3,12 @@
 from optparse import make_option
 import sys
 import os
-import bz2, gzip, zipfile
+import gzip, zipfile
+
+try:
+    import bz2
+except ImportError:
+    bz2 = None
 
 try:
     set
@@ -62,10 +67,11 @@
 
         compression_types = {
             None:   file,
-            'bz2':  bz2.BZ2File,
             'gz':   gzip.GzipFile,
             'zip':  SingleZipReader
         }
+        if bz2 is not None:
+            compression_types['bz2'] = bz2.BZ2File
 
         app_fixtures = [os.path.join(os.path.dirname(app.__file__), 'fixtures') for app in get_apps()]
         for fixture_label in fixture_labels: