exec, passthru calling /usr/local/bin/php4 problem

I am currently using Apache 1.3.27, PHP 4.3.2 and our server is configured to force all users to use PHP as a script by calling #!/usr/local/bin/php at the top of each script causing suexec to control scripts. I noticed a really strange thing from one of our users. I have tested the following and get error message about unable to fork ("/usr/local/bin/php") error. I created a simple test.php file that contains: #!/usr/local/bin/php <? passthru("/usr/local/bin/php -q somefile.php"); ?> The somefile.php contains: <? print "Hello World"; ?> However when I run test.php from within a browser I get the following as the output: Content-type: text/html X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.2 Content-type: text/html X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.2 Content-type: text/html X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.2 Content-type: text/html X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.2 Content-type: text/html X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.2 Content-type: text/html X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.2 <br /> <b>Warning</b>: passthru(): Unable to fork [/home/u/utefans/public_html/ftml_templates/test.php] in <b>/home/u/utefans/public_html/ftml_templates/test.php</b> on line <b>4</b><br /> Does anyone have any idea what is happening? It appears as if the PHP binary runs over and over until it finally freaks out and gives "unable to fork" error message. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Devin Atencio