diff --git a/psycopg/pqpath.c b/psycopg/pqpath.c
index 8b0e1347..987ec18c 100644
--- a/psycopg/pqpath.c
+++ b/psycopg/pqpath.c
@@ -283,19 +283,25 @@ pq_resolve_critical(connectionObject *conn, int close)
    note that this function does block because it needs to wait for the full
    result sets of the previous query to clear them.
 
-
    this function does not call any Py_*_ALLOW_THREADS macros */
 
-static void
+void
 pq_clear_async(connectionObject *conn)
 {
     PGresult *pgres;
 
-    do {
+    /* this will get all pending results (if the submitted query consisted of
+       many parts, i.e. "select 1; select 2", there will be many) and also
+       finalize asynchronous processing so the connection will be ready to
+       accept another query */
+    for (;;) {
         pgres = PQgetResult(conn->pgconn);
         Dprintf("pq_clear_async: clearing PGresult at %p", pgres);
-        IFCLEARPGRES(pgres);
-    } while (pgres != NULL);
+        if (pgres == NULL)
+            break;
+        CLEARPGRES(pgres);
+    }
+    conn->async_cursor = NULL;
 }
 
 /* pg_execute_command_locked - execute a no-result query on a locked connection.
diff --git a/psycopg/pqpath.h b/psycopg/pqpath.h
index 49b00846..89f6e57d 100644
--- a/psycopg/pqpath.h
+++ b/psycopg/pqpath.h
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ HIDDEN int pq_abort_locked(connectionObject *conn, PGresult **pgres,
 HIDDEN int pq_abort(connectionObject *conn);
 HIDDEN int pq_reset(connectionObject *conn);
 HIDDEN int pq_is_busy(connectionObject *conn);
+HIDDEN void pq_clear_async(connectionObject *conn);
 
 HIDDEN void pq_set_critical(connectionObject *conn, const char *msg);