Index: main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/MavenArchiver.java
===================================================================
--- main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/MavenArchiver.java	(revision 407340)
+++ main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/MavenArchiver.java	(working copy)
@@ -25,9 +25,12 @@
 import org.codehaus.plexus.archiver.jar.ManifestException;
 
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
+import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
+import java.util.Date;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -43,7 +46,7 @@
     private JarArchiver archiver;
 
     private File archiveFile;
-    
+
     /**
      * Return a pre-configured manifest
      *
@@ -219,6 +222,7 @@
         MavenProject workingProject = new MavenProject( project );
 
         File pomPropertiesFile = new File( workingProject.getFile().getParentFile(), "pom.properties" );
+        boolean pomExists = pomPropertiesFile.exists();
 
         if ( archiveConfiguration.isAddMavenDescriptor() )
         {
@@ -232,7 +236,7 @@
             // top-level POM elements so that applications that wish to access
             // POM information without the use of maven tools can do so.
             // ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-    
+
             if ( workingProject.getArtifact().isSnapshot() )
             {
                 workingProject.setVersion( workingProject.getArtifact().getVersion() );
@@ -243,20 +247,29 @@
             String artifactId = workingProject.getArtifactId();
 
         	archiver.addFile( project.getFile(), "META-INF/maven/" + groupId + "/" + artifactId + "/pom.xml" );
-            
-            
+
+
             // ----------------------------------------------------------------------
             // Create pom.properties file
             // ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
             Properties p = new Properties();
+            if(pomExists) {
+						  FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(pomPropertiesFile);
+						  p.load(fis);
+						  fis.close();
 
+						}
+            SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM d yyyy HH:mm:ss z");
+
             p.setProperty( "groupId", workingProject.getGroupId() );
 
             p.setProperty( "artifactId", workingProject.getArtifactId() );
 
             p.setProperty( "version", workingProject.getVersion() );
 
+            p.setProperty( "builtOn", dateFormat.format(new Date()));
+
             OutputStream os = new FileOutputStream( pomPropertiesFile );
 
             p.store( os, "Generated by Maven" );
@@ -302,7 +315,7 @@
         		ManifestSection section = (ManifestSection) iter.next();
         		Manifest.Section theSection = new Manifest.Section();
         		theSection.setName( section.getName() );
-        		
+
         		if( !section.isManifestEntriesEmpty() ) {
         			Map entries = section.getManifestEntries();
         			Set keys = entries.keySet();
@@ -314,11 +327,11 @@
         				theSection.addConfiguredAttribute( attr );
         			}
         		}
-        		
+
         		manifest.addConfiguredSection( theSection );
         	}
         }
-        
+
         // Configure the jar
         archiver.addConfiguredManifest( manifest );
 
@@ -332,7 +345,7 @@
         archiver.createArchive();
 
         // Cleanup
-        if ( archiveConfiguration.isAddMavenDescriptor() )
+        if ( archiveConfiguration.isAddMavenDescriptor() && !pomExists )
         {
             pomPropertiesFile.delete();
         }