Using External packages with PETSC

[Laslo Tibor Diosady]

I'm trying to use ParMetis with PETSc but I already have the ParMetis 
distribution. As opposed to using the option
--download-parmetis=1 is it possible to specify the location of the 
parmetis directory in the same manner as the mpi directory.
In other words can I do something like
--with-parmetis-dir=/usr/local/ParMetis-3.1/

I tried this particular line but I ran the configure script I got the 
error

*********************************************************************************
          UNABLE to CONFIGURE with GIVEN OPTIONS    (see configure.log for 
details):
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--with-parmetis-dir=/usr/local/ParMetis-3.1 did not work
*********************************************************************************

Is there another way to specify the parmetis directory or should I just 
use --download-parmetis=1?

Thanks,

Laslo