You should really be using LDFLAGS rather than LIBS for this.

-- 
albert chin (china_at_thewrittenword.com)
-- snip snip
--- configure.in.orig	Tue Dec  5 00:18:03 2000
+++ configure.in	Tue Dec  5 00:18:36 2000
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@
   	AC_MSG_RESULT([defaults (or given in environment)])
   else
 	test X"$OPT_SSL" = Xyes && OPT_SSL=/usr/local/ssl
-	LIBS="$LIBS -L$OPT_SSL/lib"
+	LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -L$OPT_SSL/lib"
 	CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -I$OPT_SSL/include/openssl -I$OPT_SSL/include"
 	AC_MSG_RESULT([$OPT_SSL])
   fi