[Zope] can't install external editor, help

Hi all, I am trying to install the helper app of the external editor program, when I run install I get an error:ImportError: No module named distutils.core. I guessed that distutils.core was contained in the python-dev package so I did an apt-get install python2.3-dev. But still the same error. Then I installed python-dev with no better results. Anyone out there can tell me what I am missing? thanks Aaron