diff --git a/src/IO.f90 b/src/IO.f90
index 33924bb65..867173a52 100644
--- a/src/IO.f90
+++ b/src/IO.f90
@@ -805,7 +805,7 @@ function IO_read(fileUnit) result(line)
   character(len=pStringLen) :: line
  
  
-  read(fileUnit,'(a256)',END=100) line
+  read(fileUnit,'(A)',END=100) line
  
 100 end function IO_read
 
diff --git a/src/mesh_marc.f90 b/src/mesh_marc.f90
index 90aaa43d2..21afeeff3 100644
--- a/src/mesh_marc.f90
+++ b/src/mesh_marc.f90
@@ -415,7 +415,7 @@ subroutine inputRead_mapElemSets(nameElemSet,mapElemSet,fileUnit,fileContent)
 
   rewind(fileUnit)
   do
-    read (fileUnit,'(A300)',END=620) line
+    read (fileUnit,'(a)',END=620) line
     chunkPos = IO_stringPos(line)
     if( (IO_lc(IO_stringValue(line,chunkPos,1)) == 'define' ) .and. &
         (IO_lc(IO_stringValue(line,chunkPos,2)) == 'element' ) ) then