[xml] installation problem

[Thomas Porschberg <thomas porschberg osp-dd de>]

At the moment I use libxml2-2.4.13 but I want upgrade
to libxml2-2.4.18 because I want use the latest libxslt.
compiler: gcc-3.0.1
OS      : linux
The first thing is that I have no libdir.
This was not a real problem with version libxml2-2.4.13.
I removed the -ldir entry from all Makefiles.
(I just run ./configure --prefix=/usr/local)
With the new version I did the same but now I encounter
a compilation error
gcc -g -c -DLINUX -Wall -Wall -o .libs/xmllint xmllint.o  
./.libs/libxml2.so -lz -lm -Wl,--rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib
gcc: cannot specify -o with -c or -S and multiple compilations
make[2]: *** [xmllint] Error 1

What is libdir ?
Is it necessary ?
How to get it ?
How to overcome this compilation error ?