diff --git a/lisp/ox-odt.el b/lisp/ox-odt.el
index e6eac8cc7..f4afb6c6d 100644
--- a/lisp/ox-odt.el
+++ b/lisp/ox-odt.el
@@ -3749,6 +3749,7 @@ contextual information."
 				      nil display-msg nil
 				      processing-type)
 		    (goto-char (point-min))
+		    (skip-chars-forward " \t\n")
 		    (org-element-link-parser))))
 	    (if (not (eq 'link (org-element-type link)))
 		(message "LaTeX Conversion failed.")