diff --git a/django/newforms/fields.py b/django/newforms/fields.py
index 0b883bfad1..308790b07a 100644
--- a/django/newforms/fields.py
+++ b/django/newforms/fields.py
@@ -288,6 +288,8 @@ class URLField(RegexField):
 
     def clean(self, value):
         value = RegexField.clean(self, value)
+        if not self.required and value == u'':
+            return value
         if self.verify_exists:
             import urllib2
             from django.conf import settings
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py
index bfe36a467e..2ae10dc0d6 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py
@@ -1331,6 +1331,11 @@ ValidationError: [u'This URL appears to be a broken link.']
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
 ValidationError: [u'This URL appears to be a broken link.']
+>>> f = URLField(verify_exists=True, required=False)
+>>> f.clean('')
+u''
+>>> f.clean('http://www.google.com') # This will fail if there's no Internet connection
+u'http://www.google.com'
 
 EmailField also access min_length and max_length parameters, for convenience.
 >>> f = URLField(min_length=15, max_length=20)