glibc2.0-2.1 incompatibility: _xstat?

[Rene Hogendoorn <hogend@nlr.nl>]

I have motif 2.0.1 and xrt libraries that define _xstat. This symbol is not defined
anymore in glibc-2.1; there, __xstat is defined. In glibc-2.0, _xstat is defined as
a weak alias for __xstat.

What does the weak_alias of _xstat mean?
Is there a workaround, so that I can continue to use these libraries?

Can someone more knowledgable shed some light on this?
-- 

R. A. Hogendoorn                                       E-mail: hogend@nlr.nl
Informatics Division                                   Tel. +31-527-24-8367 
National Aerospace Laboratory, The Netherlands         Fax. +31-527-24-8210