diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index f8d282346..8571745ef 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ Deluge 1.0.1 (In Development)
   * Change the default max global upload slots to 4 instead of -1 since libtorrent
     will automatically open more slots to meet the upload speed limit.
   * Fix display of tracker error messages
+  * Fix add_torrent_url() to download the torrent file in a thread to prevent
+    the main thread from blocking and causing the daemon to freeze.
 
  GtkUI:
   * Improve performance of files tab by only updating when values change
diff --git a/deluge/core/core.py b/deluge/core/core.py
index 8c4587e2b..528c97f1e 100644
--- a/deluge/core/core.py
+++ b/deluge/core/core.py
@@ -396,9 +396,12 @@ class Core(
         # Run the plugin hooks for 'post_torrent_add'
         self.plugins.run_post_torrent_add(torrent_id)
 
-    def export_add_torrent_url(self, url, save_path, options):
+    def export_add_torrent_url(self, url, options):
         log.info("Attempting to add url %s", url)
-        
+
+        threading.Thread(target=self.fetch_torrent_url_thread, args=(self.export_add_torrent_file, url, options)).start()
+
+    def fetch_torrent_url_thread(self, callback, url, options):
         # Get the actual filename of the torrent from the url provided.
         filename = url.split("/")[-1]
         
@@ -406,17 +409,16 @@ class Core(
         torrent_file = deluge.common.fetch_url(url)
         if torrent_file is None:
             return False
-        
+
         # Dump the torrents file contents to a string
         try:
             filedump = open(torrent_file, "rb").read()
         except IOError:
             log.warning("Unable to open %s for reading.", torrent_file)
             return False
-            
+
         # Add the torrent to session
-        return self.export_add_torrent_file(
-            filename, filedump, options)
+        return callback(filename, filedump, options)
         
     def export_remove_torrent(self, torrent_ids, remove_torrent, remove_data):
         log.debug("Removing torrent %s from the core.", torrent_ids)
diff --git a/deluge/ui/webui/torrent_add.py b/deluge/ui/webui/torrent_add.py
index 13dbd5099..523fa5956 100644
--- a/deluge/ui/webui/torrent_add.py
+++ b/deluge/ui/webui/torrent_add.py
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ class torrent_add:
             return
 
         if vars.url:
-            proxy.add_torrent_url(vars.url, None,options)
+            proxy.add_torrent_url(vars.url, options)
             log.debug("add-url:options :%s" % options)
             self.redirect(vars.choose_files)
         elif torrent_name:
@@ -140,4 +140,4 @@ class torrent_add:
 
 
 def register():
-    component.get("PageManager").register_page("/torrent/add(.*)",torrent_add)
\ No newline at end of file
+    component.get("PageManager").register_page("/torrent/add(.*)",torrent_add)