diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 4f7af3156..11c0b89c0 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -242,18 +242,23 @@ task prepYaCyProperties (type: Copy) {
 prepYaCyProperties.dependsOn(runGitComInf)
 compileJava.dependsOn(prepYaCyProperties) // must be executed before compile
 
-/** -----------------------------------------------------------
- * Settings during the migration from Ant to Gradle build
- * importing Ant targets and to use them within this Gradle build
- * until/where functionality has not been migrated yet
- * ------------------------------------------------------------
- */
-// Import Ant build and prefix all task names with 'ant_' to prevent naming conflict with Gradle tasks.
-ant.importBuild('build.xml') { antTaskName -> "ant_${antTaskName}".toString() }
+// implement ant task to simulate old Ant build for htroot,
+// to avoid import of complete build.xml (as currently used)
+task compileHtrootServlets {
 
-// Set group property for all Ant tasks.
-tasks.matching { task -> task.name.startsWith('ant_') }*.group = 'Ant'
-
-// include compile of htroot servlets in Gradle lifecycle somewhere after compileJava
-startScripts.dependsOn("ant_gradle-compile-htroot")
+    ant {
+        path(id:'project.class.path') {
+            // place yacycore.jar on classpath (not automatically done)
+            pathelement (location: jar.archiveFile.get())
+            // construct path elements
+            configurations.compileClasspath.each { pathelement (location: it) }
+        }
+        javac (srcdir:'htroot', excludes:'processing/**', 
+            source:'1.8', target:'1.8',
+            debug:"true", debuglevel:"lines,vars,source", includeantruntime:"false", encoding:"UTF-8") {
+            classpath (refid:'project.class.path')
+        }
+    }
+}
+startScripts.dependsOn(compileHtrootServlets)
 
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 84d4bf8b2..560bbb828 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -330,20 +330,6 @@
     </javac>
   </target>
   
-  <!-- this is a copy of compile-htroot without dependency on init (likely not needed)
-       and intended to support / to by used by gradle -->
-  <target name="gradle-compile-htroot" description="compile YaCy servlets">
-    <!-- compile htroot, htroot/yacy and htroot/htdocsdefault -->
-    <loadproperties srcFile="build.properties" />
-    <javac srcdir="${htroot}/"
-           excludes="processing/**"
-           source="${javacSource}" target="${javacTarget}"
-           debug="true" debuglevel="lines,vars,source" includeantruntime="false" encoding="UTF-8">
-      <classpath refid="project.class.path" />
-      <compilerarg value="-Xlint"/>
-    </javac>
-  </target>
-  
   <target name="compile" depends="compile-core, compile-htroot" description="compile YaCy core and YaCy servlets" />
 
   <target name="all" depends="compile">