In this work we solve an open problem of U.Höhle [Problem 11, Fuzzy Sets and Systems 145 (2004) 471-479]. We show that the solution gives a characterization of all conditionally cancellative t-subnorms. Further, we give an equivalence condition for a conditionally cancellativite t-subnorm to be a t-norm and hence show that conditionally cancellativite t-subnorms whose natural negations are strong are, in fact, t-norms. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.