Copy dependencies to a folder using Ant that runs in Maven

The following plugin copies dependencies of the specific pom to a folder.
Ant is used for this task.

<plugin>
   <artifactid>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactid>
   <executions>
       <execution>
           <id>copy-tree</id>
           <phase>initialize</phase>
           <goals>
               <goal>run</goal>
           </goals>
           <configuration>
               <tasks>
                   <typedef resource="org/apache/maven/artifact/ant/antlib.xml">
                       <classpath refid="maven.dependency.classpath">
                   </typedef>
                   <pom id="maven.project" file="pom.xml">
                   <dependencies filesetid="dependency.fileset" usescope="runtime">
                       <pom refid="maven.project">
                   </dependencies>
                   <mkdir dir="target/deps">
                   <copy todir="target/deps">
                       <fileset refid="dependency.fileset">
                   </copy>
               </tasks>
           </configuration>
       </execution>
   </executions>
   <dependencies>
       <dependency>
           <groupid>org.apache.maven</groupid>
           <artifactid>maven-artifact-ant</artifactid>
           <version>2.0.4</version>
       </dependency>
   </dependencies>
</plugin>

via http://www.nabble.com/Using-ant-tasks-inside-antrun-to6994761.html#a6994761

P.S. It's true that it's possible to use the assembly plugin for this specific task. But sometimes things become complex and ANT is essential.