diff -r ae83d927c629 -r 69c75d063c7a mercurial/merge.py
--- a/mercurial/merge.py	Fri Mar 14 09:56:58 2008 -0300
+++ b/mercurial/merge.py	Fri Mar 14 09:56:58 2008 -0300
@@ -609,7 +609,7 @@
             raise util.Abort(_("update spans branches, use 'hg merge' "
                                "or 'hg update -C' to lose changes"))
         if branchmerge and not forcemerge:
-            if wc.files():
+            if wc.files() or wc.deleted():
                 raise util.Abort(_("outstanding uncommitted changes"))
 
         ### calculate phase