problems compiling gtk

[brent verner <damonbrent earthlink net>]

i'm trying to build the CVS source for gtk.
when i 'autoconf' i get the following error :

configure.in:150: warning: AC_TRY_RUN called without default to allow
cross compiling

when i run the produced './configure' i get :

./configure: line 566: syntax error near unexpected token
`AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE($PACKAGE,'
./configure: line 566: `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE($PACKAGE, $VERSION, no-define)

does any one know what is wrong here? i'm lost.

autoconf v2.12
automake v1.3

thanks,
brent