xenbackendd: Failed to contact xenstore

Hi list,

does anyone know what causes the following:
xenbackendd: Failed to contact xenstore (Connection
refused).  Is it running?

xenstore is not running even though I have the (I think)
appropriate
lines in my rc.conf:

xend=YES
xenbackendd=YES
#xendomains=""

Under the top command I can only see python2.3 twice,
nothing else
related to xen.

If I enter xm list on the shell prompt I get:

Error: Error connecting to xend: No such file or directory. 
Is xend running?

-- 
Kimi