help with shared php.ini

Hello. We placed our php scripts onto leased webspace. The problem is that PHP4 is compiled as an Apache module and not a CGI interpreter. That's why we cannot have our own php.ini file and all subscribers share global php.ini. Right now it's a complete nightmare since include_path is set to nonexisting directory, so we cannot execute include() function. If the webhosting providers unset include_path , we'll be able to include(), but will have to store all our files in the world-visible directory? Does anyone know any better way to use shared php.ini and still store included files outside www tree? I tried include_path = $HOME/www , it didn't quite work. Thanks a lot. Sergiy.