To build arts (3.5.12) from the stable repository, with autoconf,
I applied a little sed substitution :

$ cp -vp /usr/share/aclocal/libtool.m4 admin/libtool.m4.in &&
$ cp -vp /usr/share/libtool/config/ltmain.sh admin/ltmain.sh &&
$ make -f admin/Makefile.common &&
$ sed -e 's/qiomanager_p.h qiomanager_p.moc/qiomanager_p.h > qiomanager_p.moc/'
-i qtmcop/Makefile.in

and then ./configure ... && make && make install

It may help.
( See <http://trinity-devel.pearsoncomputing.net/?0::116> )

-- 
Laurent