diff --git a/lib/compress.js b/lib/compress.js
index ddb4437b..7b865fdd 100644
--- a/lib/compress.js
+++ b/lib/compress.js
@@ -759,8 +759,10 @@ function Compressor(options, false_by_default) {
     });
 
     AST_BlockStatement.DEFMETHOD("optimize", function(compressor){
-        if (this.body.length == 1)
-            return this.body[0];
+        switch (this.body.length) {
+          case 1: return this.body[0];
+          case 0: return make_node(AST_EmptyStatement, this);
+        }
         return this;
     });