diff --git a/plugins/eclipse/src/org/jetbrains/idea/eclipse/config/EclipseClasspathStorageProvider.java b/plugins/eclipse/src/org/jetbrains/idea/eclipse/config/EclipseClasspathStorageProvider.java
index 5f06150ce0cc..8db305836756 100644
--- a/plugins/eclipse/src/org/jetbrains/idea/eclipse/config/EclipseClasspathStorageProvider.java
+++ b/plugins/eclipse/src/org/jetbrains/idea/eclipse/config/EclipseClasspathStorageProvider.java
@@ -202,8 +202,14 @@ public class EclipseClasspathStorageProvider implements ClasspathStorageProvider
       try {
         final HashSet<String> usedVariables = new HashSet<String>();
         final CachedXmlDocumentSet documentSet = getFileSet();
-        final String path = documentSet.getParent(EclipseXml.PROJECT_FILE);
-        LOG.assertTrue(documentSet.exists(EclipseXml.PROJECT_FILE));
+        String path = documentSet.getParent(EclipseXml.PROJECT_FILE);
+        if (!documentSet.exists(EclipseXml.PROJECT_FILE)) {
+          if (!documentSet.exists(EclipseXml.CLASSPATH_FILE)) {
+            return usedVariables;
+          }
+
+          path = documentSet.getParent(EclipseXml.CLASSPATH_FILE);
+        }
         final EclipseClasspathReader classpathReader = new EclipseClasspathReader(path, module.getProject(), null);
         classpathReader.init(model);
         if (documentSet.exists(EclipseXml.CLASSPATH_FILE)) {