make menuconfig burp

[Dave Bateman <batemand@mindspring.com>]

I'm trying to build a kernel and "make menuconfig" gives the following
error:

debian:/usr/src/kernel-source-2.2.15# make menuconfig
rm -f include/asm
( cd include ; ln -sf asm-i386 asm)
make -C scripts/lxdialog all
make[1]: Entering directory
`/usr/src/kernel-source-2.2.15/scripts/lxdialog'
find: /usr/local/lib/: No such file or directory
gcc -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -DLOCALE
-DCURSES_LOC="<curses.h>"   -c -o lxdialog.o lxdialog.c
In file included from lxdialog.c:22:
dialog.h:29: curses.h: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** [lxdialog.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory
`/usr/src/kernel-source-2.2.15/scripts/lxdialog'
make: *** [menuconfig] Error 2

do I need to make /usr/local/lib manually ? or did I miss something
else?

TIA
Dave