A new and facile synthesis of 2-thioxoquinazolin-4-ones by introducing a benzenoid system in the pyrimidine moiety by reacting ethoxymethylene derivatives of 1,3-diarylthiobarbituric acids (DTBA) with active methylene compounds, such as malononitrile and ethyl cyanoacetate, in presence of ZnCl(2) has been developed.