apache and Access Control issue

[Nicolas]

Dear group,

I have an issue with Authorization/Access Control and apache that does
not start.
I have installed MAMP 1.7.1, which includes apache 2.0.59 on my mac
running macos 10.5.1.

Apache was working fine until I tried to use its access control feature.
By access control feature I mean, including something like this:
<Directory "/adirectory">
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Restricted Files"
AuthUserFile /usr/local/apache/passwd/passwords
Require user rbowen
</Directory>
with the correct parameters, in the httpd.conf file of apache.
If I do so apache won't start and no error message are written in the
apache-errors.log file.

Interestingly if I write something more simple like:
<Directory "/adirectory">
deny from all
</Directory>
it will work just fine. It seems that the "AuthType Basic" make it hang
when starting. I read somewhere that identification on the mac is
different from linux, but i must say this is out of my understanding.

I also tried to use .htaccess files instead of this method. If i do so,
apache will start but accessing the directory with the htaccess file
will cause a error 500, which is rather general.

Since nothing is written in the log file of apache, I am out of ideas of
where to look for the problem. Has anybody seen this kind of thing before?
Thx in advance
Nicolas