How to compare Debian package versions?

Question

I looked at python-apt and python-debian, and they don't seem to have functionality to compare package versions. Do I have to write my own, or is there something I can use?

Ideally, it would look something like:

>>> v1 = apt.version("1:1.3.10-0.3")
>>> v2 = apt.version("1.3.4-1")
>>> v1 > v2
True