Installing Pango with the Xft backend

[Karina Orot <rinadesu gmail com>]

I apologize if this has been answered previously, but I couldn't find
a "good" answer in my attempts to search. I am trying to install
gtk+-2.6.4 (because it is the latest) on a RedHat Enterprise Linux 3
box. I need it so that I can then install the Nessus client. I've seen
many postings of people having this same error I'm getting:
"configure: error: Pango Xft backend required for x11 target" when
trying to configure the gtk+ package...

I had previously installed pango with no problem as I thought only one
backend was required. When gtk+ complained about the Xft backend
though, I installed Xft.

I've read the pango configure script and was almost sure that I have
the required packages installed. But I am confused about the
difference btw Xft and "Xft2" - and whether I need to install a
different package named "Xft2" to get the Xft backend to compile (or
is Xft-2.X "Xft2?). I was not able to find an actual "Xft2" download.
However, I do have the following installed, and in my PKG_CONFIG_PATH:
Xft-2.0.4
Xft-devel-2.0.4
freetype-2.1.4-4.0
freetype-devel-2.1.4-4.0

I know the pango configure script exits successfully, but does not
pick up on the Xft packages I have installed though. It skips past it
in configure (I put in a debug statement just in case) and ends up
showing just:
configuration:
           backends: FreeType

I have confirmed that Xft.pc indeed exists (/usr/lib/pkgconfig/xft.pc)
and that it is in my PKG_CONFIG_PATH.

The only other error I found during ./configure was a warning:
configure: WARNING: X development libraries not found

Anyone have any suggestions on what else could be my problem?

Thanks in advance!
Karina