diff --git a/lisp/ChangeLog b/lisp/ChangeLog
index 6e78f41e6a7..609dcb117b4 100644
--- a/lisp/ChangeLog
+++ b/lisp/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2012-06-16  Chong Yidong  <cyd@gnu.org>
+
+	* term/xterm.el (terminal-init-xterm): Discard input before
+	querying background mode (Bug#10959).
+
 2012-06-16  Stefan Merten  <smerten@oekonux.de>
 
 	* textmodes/rst.el: Added and corrected some comments.
diff --git a/lisp/term/xterm.el b/lisp/term/xterm.el
index 51e5aa5796d..28fb9da0b9d 100644
--- a/lisp/term/xterm.el
+++ b/lisp/term/xterm.el
@@ -539,6 +539,7 @@ The relevant features are:
                 (and (memq 'reportBackground tocheck-capabilities)
                      version
                      (>= version 242)))
+	(discard-input)
         (send-string-to-terminal "\e]11;?\e\\")
         (when (and (equal (read-event nil nil 2) ?\e)
                    (equal (read-event nil nil 2) ?\]))