kernel compiling problem

[harmston]

I am new to linux and want to recompile the kernel to support my sound card but
when I type make xconfig  I get the following 
[root@localhost linux]# make xconfig
rm -f include/asm
( cd include ; ln -sf asm-i386 asm)
make -C scripts kconfig.tk
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux/scripts'
gcc -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -c -o tkparse.o tkparse.c
tkparse.c:48: stdio.h: No such file or directory
tkparse.c:49: stdlib.h: No such file or directory
tkparse.c:50: string.h: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** [tkparse.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux/scripts'
make: *** [xconfig] Error 2
[root@localhost linux]#   

What can I do to fix this problem 

I am running mandrake linux 7.1

Thanks for any help