Error compiling PHP on CentOS 64 bit

In order to compile PHP successfully on 64 bit you need to use the option
--with-libdir=lib64
otherwise you will stay forever with the error
checking for MySQL support... yes checking for specified location of the MySQL UNIX socket... no checking for MySQL UNIX socket location... no checking for mysql_close in -lmysqlclient... no checking for mysql_error in -lmysqlclient... no configure: error: mysql configure failed. Please check config.log for more information.