newbie error w/ meld-1.1.1

[Steve Whitney <dreddieevil yahoo com>]

# ./meld
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./meld", line 78, in ?
    import gtk
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 33, in ?
    import gobject as _gobject
ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gobject.so: undefined
symbol: PyUnicodeUCS2_FromUnicode
# rpm -q -a | egrep '(gtk|py)'
gtksourceview-1.0.1-3
libexif-gtk-0.3.3-308
gtkspell-2.0.5-58
gtk2-doc-2.4.9-10
python-orbit-2.0.0-177
gtkdoc-1.2-62
gtk2-2.4.9-10
gtk-engines-0.12-960
gtkmm-1.2.10-301
python-numeric-23.3-2
gtkhtml2-devel-3.2.2-3
python-gtk-2.6.2-3
gtk2-engines-2.2.0-400
gtk2-themes-0.1-636
python-2.3.4-3.2
python-gnome-2.0.3-2
gtk2-devel-2.4.9-10
yast2-bootfloppy-2.10.17-2
gtklp-0.9u-2
gtkglarea-1.2.2-893
python-pygame-1.6.2-2
gtk-1.2.10-882
libgtkhtml-2.6.1-3
gtkhtml2-3.2.2-3
libgtkhtml-devel-2.6.1-3
# uname -a
Linux linux 2.6.8-24.18-default #1 Fri Aug 19 11:56:28 UTC 2005 i686 i686 i386
GNU/Linux
#

?  Possibly the most pertinent result for:
 http://www.google.com/search?q=%22undefined+symbol%3A+PyUnicodeUCS2_FromUnicode%22

is
 http://mats.imk.fraunhofer.de/pipermail/pykde/2003-April/005106.html
, which suggests that I should re-install Python from source.

FWIW, I'm not only a meld newbie, but also a python newbie -- I've gotten
hello-world stuff to work but haven't tried much else.

Any insights, or RTFMs-upside-my-head?

thanks
-steve