'configure' is a special command script that works out what kind of Unix you have and builds a makefile.
I've never heard of that error - can you post the exact error message?
Did you write the config script - where was it from
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnulibc1
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnulibc1
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name...
configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details.
Check the command in config.log
It could be that you don't have write permission to the dir that you are running this in.
Other people suggested that it occurs if you don't have gcc AND g++ installed, or have a faulty install.
On ubuntu/debian try "apt-get install build-essentials"