cups ebuild error

i attempted to emerge kde.

after a long time, the build ended in:

checking for cupsPrintFiles in -lcups... no
configure: error: Cannot find CUPS libraries (libcups)
!!! ERROR The ebuild did not complete successfully.
!!! Function econf, Line 9, Exitcode 1
!!! econf failed

cups was USEd in my /etc/make.conf during kernel build (gentoo-sources).

for jollies, i attempted to emerge cups and got exactly the same error.

i don't find any function econf in the cups ebuild script.

/usr/portage/net-print/cups contains ebuild scripts for cups 1.1.14r4
and 1.1.15r2

what do i need to do to successfully emerge kde in this case?

sorry if i have offended by duplicating this post on the installing
gentoo forum. phpBB was borked this morning when i tried to post on the
forum, so i composed this post to the list instead. in the meantime, the
forums came back to life.

--chris