diff --git a/aconversions/src/fa2re/StateElimination.cpp b/aconversions/src/fa2re/StateElimination.cpp
index 76cc3e41f080d0ccd5dfa87a07ab7c79f5cd9336..177a3a0b7ba60b668c0982ea499201edf3614113 100644
--- a/aconversions/src/fa2re/StateElimination.cpp
+++ b/aconversions/src/fa2re/StateElimination.cpp
@@ -17,8 +17,7 @@ namespace conversions
 
 StateElimination::StateElimination( const FSM & automaton ) : m_automaton( automaton )
 {
-    if( automaton.getFinalStates( ).size( ) <= 0 )
-        throw AlibException( "aconversion: Automaton's final states set must not be empty." );
+
 }
 
 StateElimination::~StateElimination( void )
@@ -34,6 +33,13 @@ void StateElimination::deleteTransitions( void )
 
 RegExp StateElimination::convert( void )
 {
+    if( m_automaton.getFinalStates( ).size( ) <= 0 )
+    {
+        RegExp ret;
+        ret.setRegExp( new RegExpEmpty( ) );
+        return ret;
+    }
+
     m_MR = ExtendedNFA( );
 
     // steps 1 + 2