web site security: how to hide login info for mysql-connection

Hi, At the moment I store username, password and database for my MySQL connections in a file called settings.php to avoid putting them in my php files direct. On a Linux server, what extra steps can I take to prevent others from accessing settings.php? Somewhere, I've read that settings.php should be placed in a directory outside the html/php-directories. Today, my web directory is /home/anders/public_html and subdirectories to public_html. Should settings.php be placed in /home/anders/include? -- anders thoresson