libsavi library NOT FOUND

Hi everyone! I found a lot of messages regarding this same problem but no
useful solution was given so I joined the list to ask you guys waht to do.

I get the same error meesage whinever I try to compile sophie:
...
checking for location of libsavi... /usr/local/lib
checking for SAVIsweepFile in -lsavi... no
** libsavi library NOT FOUND
** You need libsavi in order to use Sophie.
** Download it at http://www.sophos.com/

Even though libsavi.so is on /usr/local/lib.
# ls -la /usr/local/lib/libsavi.so*
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           21 Feb  3 12:23
/usr/local/lib/libsavi.so -> libsavi.so.3.2.05.035
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           21 Feb  3 14:51
/usr/local/lib/libsavi.so.2 -> libsavi.so.3.2.05.035
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           21 Feb  3 14:51
/usr/local/lib/libsavi.so.3 -> libsavi.so.3.2.05.035
-r-xr-xr-x    1 bin      bin       1003380 Feb  3 14:51
/usr/local/lib/libsavi.so.3.2.05.035

How can compile sophie-3.04rc2 on a RedHat 9.0 Linux box with Sophos 3.73,
engine 2.14 installed and running?
I was wondering if I need libsavi.a or libsavi.h to compile it

Thanks for any help.

Andre