I installed Macports 1.8.2 from a DMG. That seemed to install fine. I ran sudo port selfupdate to make sure my ports tree was current. I then tried to install bindfs as I want to mount some directories in my OS X file system (like you can do with mount --bind in linux).

pkgconfig and macfuse are two dependencies of bindfs. I had trouble installing bindfs due to errors installing pkgconfig, so I tried to just install pkgconfig, here's the debug output from sudo port install pkgconfig:

$ sudo port -d install pkgconfig
DEBUG: Found port in file:///opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports/devel/pkgconfig
DEBUG: Changing to port directory: /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports/devel/pkgconfig
DEBUG: OS Platform: darwin
DEBUG: OS Version: 10.3.0
DEBUG: Mac OS X Version: 10.6
DEBUG: System Arch: i386
DEBUG: setting option os.universal_supported to yes
DEBUG: org.macports.load registered provides 'load', a pre-existing procedure. Target override will not be provided
DEBUG: org.macports.unload registered provides 'unload', a pre-existing procedure. Target override will not be provided
DEBUG: org.macports.distfiles registered provides 'distfiles', a pre-existing procedure. Target override will not be provided
DEBUG: adding the default universal variant
DEBUG: Reading variant descriptions from /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports/_resources/port1.0/variant_descriptions.conf
DEBUG: Requested variant darwin is not provided by port pkgconfig.
DEBUG: Requested variant i386 is not provided by port pkgconfig.
DEBUG: Requested variant macosx is not provided by port pkgconfig.
--->  Computing dependencies for pkgconfig
DEBUG: Executing org.macports.main (pkgconfig)
DEBUG: Skipping completed org.macports.fetch (pkgconfig)
DEBUG: Skipping completed org.macports.checksum (pkgconfig)
DEBUG: Skipping completed org.macports.extract (pkgconfig)
DEBUG: Skipping completed org.macports.patch (pkgconfig)
--->  Configuring pkgconfig
DEBUG: Using compiler 'Mac OS X gcc 4.2'
DEBUG: Executing org.macports.configure (pkgconfig)
DEBUG: Environment: CFLAGS='-O2 -arch x86_64' CPPFLAGS='-I/opt/local/include' CXXFLAGS='-O2 -arch x86_64' MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET='10.6' CXX='/usr/bin/g++-4.2' F90FLAGS='-O2 -m64' LDFLAGS='-L/opt/local/lib' OBJC='/usr/bin/gcc-4.2' FCFLAGS='-O2 -m64' INSTALL='/usr/bin/install -c' OBJCFLAGS='-O2 -arch x86_64' FFLAGS='-O2 -m64' CC='/usr/bin/gcc-4.2'
DEBUG: Assembled command: 'cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_devel_pkgconfig/work/pkg-config-0.23" && ./configure --prefix=/opt/local --enable-indirect-deps --with-pc-path=/opt/local/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/local/share/pkgconfig'
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... no
checking for nawk... no
checking for awk... awk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... no
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking build system type... i386-apple-darwin10.3.0
checking host system type... i386-apple-darwin10.3.0
checking for style of include used by make... none
checking for gcc... /usr/bin/gcc-4.2
checking for C compiler default output file name... 
configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details.
Error: Target org.macports.configure returned: configure failure: shell command " cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_devel_pkgconfig/work/pkg-config-0.23" && ./configure --prefix=/opt/local --enable-indirect-deps --with-pc-path=/opt/local/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/local/share/pkgconfig " returned error 77
DEBUG: Backtrace: configure failure: shell command " cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_devel_pkgconfig/work/pkg-config-0.23" && ./configure --prefix=/opt/local --enable-indirect-deps --with-pc-path=/opt/local/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/local/share/pkgconfig " returned error 77
while executing
"$procedure $targetname"
Warning: the following items did not execute (for pkgconfig): org.macports.activate org.macports.configure org.macports.build org.macports.destroot org.macports.install
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.

I have only recently installed Xcode 3.2.2 (prior to installing macports). Am I right in thinking this the issue here:

configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables