diff --git a/include/polarssl/error.h b/include/polarssl/error.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9a73af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/polarssl/error.h
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+/**
+ * \file error.h
+ *
+ * \brief Error to string translation
+ *
+ *  Copyright (C) 2006-2010, Brainspark B.V.
+ *
+ *  This file is part of PolarSSL (http://www.polarssl.org)
+ *  Lead Maintainer: Paul Bakker <polarssl_maintainer at polarssl.org>
+ *
+ *  All rights reserved.
+ *
+ *  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ *  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ *  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+ *  (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ *  GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ *  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
+ *  with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+ *  51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
+ */
+#ifndef POLARSSL_ERROR_H
+#define POLARSSL_ERROR_H
+
+/**
+ * Error code layout.
+ *
+ * Currently we try to keep all error codes within the negative space of 16
+ * bytes signed integers to support all platforms (-0x0000 - -0x8000). In
+ * addition we'd like to give two layers of information on the error if
+ * possible.
+ *
+ * For that purpose the error codes are segmented in the following manner:
+ *
+ * 16 bit error code bit-segmentation
+ *
+ * 1 bit  - Intentionally not used
+ * 3 bits - High level module ID
+ * 5 bits - Module-dependent error code
+ * 6 bits - Low level module errors
+ * 1 bit  - Intentionally not used
+ *
+ * Low-level module errors (0x007E-0x0002)
+ *
+ * Module   Nr  Codes assigned 
+ * MPI       7  0x0002-0x000E
+ * BASE64    2  0x0010-0x0012
+ * ASN1      5  0x0014-0x001C
+ * AES       2  0x0020-0x0022
+ * CAMELLIA  2  0x0024-0x0026
+ * XTEA      1  0x0028-0x0028
+ * PADLOCK   1  0x0030-0x0030
+ * DES       1  0x0032-0x0032
+ * NET      10  0x0040-0x0052
+ *
+ * High-level module nr (3 bits - 0x1...-0x8...)
+ * Name     ID  Nr of Errors
+ * PEM      1   8
+ * X509     2   20
+ * DHM      3   6
+ * RSA      4   9
+ * MD       5   1
+ * CIPER    6   1
+ * SSL      7   27
+ *
+ * Module dependent error code (5 bits 0x.08.-0x.F8.)
+ */
+
+/**
+ * \brief Translate a PolarSSL error code into a string representation,
+ *        Result is truncated if necessary and always includes a terminating
+ *        null byte.
+ *
+ * \param errnum    error code
+ * \param buffer    buffer to place representation in
+ * \param buflen    length of the buffer
+ */
+void error_strerror( int errnum, char *buffer, size_t buflen );
+
+#endif /* error.h */