php.ini not being read

I've compiled and installed Apcache 2.0.52 and PHP 5.0.3 with the config 
file path set to "/etc".  When I hit a php page through apache that 
contains phpinfo(), it shows:

   Configuration File (php.ini) Path -->	/etc

I set the session.save_path to /tmp in /etc/php.ini.

When I hit the phpinfo() again, the session.save_path is set to empty:

   session.save_path	no value	no value

The permissions on the php.ini are set to readable by everybody (644). 
The /tmp directory is writable and readable by everybody (776).


What am I missing here??