Computed version number in configure.ac

[Guillaume Chazarain]

Hello,

In my configure.ac I get the version number from the NEWS file, this used
to work but does not anymore with autoconf-2.53.

I used :

AC_INIT([src/gliv.c])
read version < $srcdir/NEWS
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([gliv], [$version])

but now, with

AC_INIT([gliv], [$(head -n 1 NEWS)])

autoconf complains the version arg is not a litteral.

So here is my question :
How to use a computed version number in configure.ac ?

Regargds,
Guillaume