diff --git a/src/backend/access/nbtree/nbtree.c b/src/backend/access/nbtree/nbtree.c
index dd6f1df6d2..3533b3b565 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/nbtree/nbtree.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/nbtree/nbtree.c
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
  * Portions Copyright (c) 1994, Regents of the University of California
  *
  * IDENTIFICATION
- *	  $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/access/nbtree/nbtree.c,v 1.140 2006/02/12 00:18:17 tgl Exp $
+ *	  $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/access/nbtree/nbtree.c,v 1.141 2006/02/14 17:20:01 tgl Exp $
  *
  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
@@ -580,8 +580,6 @@ btbulkdelete(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 						maxoff;
 			BlockNumber nextpage;
 
-			vacuum_delay_point();
-
 			ndeletable = 0;
 			page = BufferGetPage(buf);
 			opaque = (BTPageOpaque) PageGetSpecialPointer(page);
@@ -638,6 +636,10 @@ btbulkdelete(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 			}
 			else
 				_bt_relbuf(rel, buf);
+
+			/* call vacuum_delay_point while not holding any buffer lock */
+			vacuum_delay_point();
+
 			/* And advance to next page, if any */
 			if (nextpage == P_NONE)
 				break;
@@ -732,6 +734,8 @@ btvacuumcleanup(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 		Page		page;
 		BTPageOpaque opaque;
 
+		vacuum_delay_point();
+
 		/*
 		 * We can't use _bt_getbuf() here because it always applies
 		 * _bt_checkpage(), which will barf on an all-zero page. We want to