PEAR not found

Hi all, I have a new install and am trying to get PEAR working - MDB2 to be exact. I have modified /etc/php.ini to have the following include_path = ".:/php/includes:/usr/share/pear" phpinfo() reports the directive --includedir=/usr/include I can confirm that MDB2.php exists in that directory. httpd has been restarted. I have literally copied the examples form the PEAR docs and I am using a postgresql backend using the bpsimple database that I can access with no problems with pg_connect() from a php script. When using PEAR::MDB2 all I get is MDB2 Error:not found. So it seems that the directoyr is not being read. Ideas of where to start looking? All pointers appreciated. Bob