Configure problem

[squareyes]

Hi all,
am a relative newbie, and decided to do my first  configure,  make etc.
Have aquired a tar from "scribus" and unpacked it to ~/Desktop/scribus
the first step has got me confused, do I need to install a "C" compiler, 
and if so any suggestions.

squareyes at here:~/Desktop/scribus/freedomyug_en$ ./configure --prefix 
/usr/local
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for -p flag to install... yes
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cl... no
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log' for more details.
squareyes at here:~/Desktop/scribus/freedomyug_en$

Many thanks in advance
Take Care
Winton