OK I have installed latest autoconf and automake (1.8) and it works now, though it gives lots of warnings during automake:
/usr/share/aclocal/xmms.m4:17: warning: underquoted definition of XMMS_TEST_VERSION run info '(automake)Extending aclocal' or see http://sources.redhat.com/automake/automake.html#Extending%20aclocal /usr/share/aclocal/xmms.m4:62: warning: underquoted definition of AM_PATH_XMMS /usr/share/aclocal/xml-i18n-tools.m4:24: warning: underquoted definition of XML_I18N_TOOLS_NEWER_THAN_0_9 /usr/share/aclocal/xml-i18n-tools.m4:28: warning: underquoted definition of AC_PROG_XML_I18N_TOOLS /usr/share/aclocal/xml-i18n-tools.m4:30: warning: underquoted definition of X18T_PFORG1
etc...
Any idea of what else to install to silence these?