diff --git a/openerp/tools/yaml_import.py b/openerp/tools/yaml_import.py
index 767fa505b9f..82e281642c9 100644
--- a/openerp/tools/yaml_import.py
+++ b/openerp/tools/yaml_import.py
@@ -370,11 +370,12 @@ class YamlInterpreter(object):
                 if type(val) in (tuple,list):
                     val = val[0]
             elif fg[key]['type'] == 'one2many':
-                if len(val) and type(val[0]) == dict:
+                if val and isinstance(val,(list,tuple)) and \
+                    isinstance(val[0], dict):
                     val = map(lambda x: (0,0,x), val)
             elif fg[key]['type'] == 'many2many':
-                if val and isinstance(val,(list,tuple)):
-                    if isinstance(val[0], (int,long)):
+                if val and isinstance(val,(list,tuple)) and \
+                    isinstance(val[0], (int,long)):
                         val = [(6,0,val)]
             return val