Problem with httpd

[mike]

With test2 (fresh clean install) httpd fails to start with the following
Stopping httpd:                                            [FAILED]
Starting httpd: Syntax error on line 272 of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:
DocumentRoot must be a directory

this is /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
#
DocumentRoot "/home/www/html/"
                                                                                This is ls -l /home/www
drwxrwxr-x   3 mike apache 4096 Apr  2  2004 cgi-bin
drwxrwxr-x   3 mike apache 4096 Sep 23  2003 error
drwxrwxr-x  11 mike apache 4096 Apr  2  2004 html
drwxrwxr-x   3 mike apache 4096 Feb 11 17:54 icons
drwxrwxr-x  13 mike apache 4096 Sep 23  2003 manual

so anyone any ideas