[CentOS] Problems with UserDir directive on CentOS 5

Hi,

I'm currently setting up a local LAMP server to test various apps.

Starting from the out-of-the-box configuration of Apache, I test it, and it's OK: http://localhost shows Apache's default page OK in Firefox.

Now I edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and replace 'UserDir disabled' by 'UserDir public_html'.

I restart Apache.

Then, as a normal user (kikinovak):

$ cd $ mkdir public_html

I edit a basic index.html file, then put it into this directory.

I open Firefox at http://localhost/~kikinovak/

... and I get the following error message:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /~kikinovak/ on this server. Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) Server at localhost Port 80

Q: what did I do wrong? (I've done this successfully on Slackware and Debian before)

Any suggestions?

Niki