diff -ur pgjdbc.orig/doc/pgjdbc.xml pgjdbc/doc/pgjdbc.xml
--- pgjdbc.orig/doc/pgjdbc.xml	2009-06-20 17:19:40.000000000 +0200
+++ pgjdbc/doc/pgjdbc.xml	2009-08-05 17:50:25.110472000 +0200
@@ -669,6 +669,14 @@
        </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
+      <varlistentry>
+       <term><varname>role</varname> = <type>String</type></term>
+       <listitem>
+        <para>
+         Set the initial role of the session upon connection.
+        </para>
+       </listitem>
+      </varlistentry>
 
      </variablelist>
     </para>
diff -ur pgjdbc.orig/org/postgresql/jdbc2/AbstractJdbc2Connection.java pgjdbc/org/postgresql/jdbc2/AbstractJdbc2Connection.java
--- pgjdbc.orig/org/postgresql/jdbc2/AbstractJdbc2Connection.java	2009-07-01 07:00:40.000000000 +0200
+++ pgjdbc/org/postgresql/jdbc2/AbstractJdbc2Connection.java	2009-08-05 17:43:52.702374000 +0200
@@ -175,6 +175,17 @@
             openStackTrace = new Throwable("Connection was created at this point:");
             enableDriverManagerLogging();
         }
+
+        // Set role if supplied:
+        String role = info.getProperty("role");
+        if (role != null)
+        {
+            if (logger.logDebug())
+            {
+                logger.debug("    role = " + role);
+            }
+            execSQLUpdate("SET ROLE '" + escapeString(role) + "'");
+        }
     }
 
     private final TimestampUtils timestampUtils;