new rpm, old SuSE?

Does anyone have any hints for me on compiling (or obtaining a binary, in the unlikely event one's available) rpm 4.2 on a SuSE 7.1 system? I've got this old system running (actually, two of them), and I'd like to be able to use newer source rpms. Unfortunately, the .spec files with newer packages generally make rpm3 barf. I've got the package from ftp.rpm.org, but it's not building on my system. It tries to use its own internal libelf, and that just doesn't build for whatever reason. The ./configure doesn't appear to provide the 'use the libelf on this system, it's up to date and works fine, you stupid idiot program' option, unfortunately. If it did, I'd set that flag and be on my way. Thoughts? --Danny