zlib versions

[david stevenson]

Could someone please educate me on zlib?

I can compile kernel 2.4.21 with MTD updated from tarball 20031021 with jff2 
with no errors.
But when I try and compile the utils from the same tar ball, using the same 
kernel headers I get error file not found zlib.h.

I can compile the utils against the kernel headers on my host 2.4.20 without 
error. But I guess then the binaries will not run on the target machine?

The difference appears to be linux/zlib v1.1.3 or /zlib v1.1.4 but I am not 
sure what I should use to get utils that run.
Thanks
David