Specifying java source and target version in Maven 2

While converting from Ant to Maven2 i have came across following error while trying to compile the project

generics are not supported in -source 1.4
(try -source 1.5 to enable generics)
private Map  variables;

To fix the problem we need to add the pluggin configuration to our pom.xml

...
    
        
            
                org.apache.maven.plugins
                maven-compiler-plugin
                
                    1.5
                    1.5
                
            
        
    
...

Thats it.