due to ever changing kernel data structures and renaming fuse was not building on 2.6.20-rc2-mm1 (and almost certainly other recent kernels) here's a fix based on lkml postings about the changes.
Created attachment 105040 [details, diff] patch to build sys-fs/fuse on 2.6.20 kernels
Patch works for me
DOes it also work on kernels <2.6.20? Should still compile on 2.6.16 or 2.6.19
currenty have fuse build with this patch on 2.6.17-no2 , compiles and passes simple test of mounting an ntfs partition with ntfs3g and runs ls on the mounted fs.
thanks, I committed the patch and fixed this.