Parse error with simple script

Hello All, I am sure this is simple, but I really cant figure it out by myself.. at least not tonight :) This simple script gives : Parse error: parse error in /var/www/html/test.php on line 2 # cat /var/www/html/test.php <?php $user = "root" ; echo "hello $user"; ?> If I comment (//) line 2, it works and the hello shows up. If I replace the double quotes with single quotes, it gives the same parse error. I already tried overwritng my php.ini with the original one and also tried reinstalling the mod_php rpm. Thanks a lot for any hints. Mohamed~ I am using Linux Mandrake 8.0 with these rpms: > rpm -qa|egrep php\|apache php-ldap-4.0.4pl1-6mdk apache-common-1.3.19-3mdk apache-modules-1.3.19-3mdk apache-mod_perl-1.3.19_1.25-3mdk apache-1.3.19-3mdk php-common-4.0.4pl1-6mdk apache-suexec-1.3.19-3mdk mod_php-4.0.4pl1-6mdk php-imap-4.0.4pl1-6mdk apache-conf-1.3.19-3mdk php-4.0.4pl1-6mdk apache-manual-1.3.19-3mdk php-gd-4.0.4pl1-6mdk php-readline-4.0.4pl1-6mdk