.htaccess 403 error! HALP!

[vito201-:D]

Suddenly my .htaccess file is apparently unaccessable... I've tried allowing access to everything and deleting the .htaccess file etc... but nothing seems to work...

When viewing the site this message appears:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /Shoutbox.htm on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/2.2.13 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.13 OpenSSL/0.9.8g mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 PHP/5.2.6 Server at www.XXXXX.co.uk Port 80

And this is what the many, many errors in my ErrorLog looks like:

[Tue Aug 25 12:52:25 2009] [crit] [client XX.XX.XXX.XXX] (13)Permission denied: /home/XXXXX/public_html/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable

[BoyBetterKnow]

Can't you edit the permissions of it in cpanel :S

[vito201-:D]

Can't you edit the permissions of it in cpanel :S

All that'd do is change the .htaccess file anyway?...

[Recursion]

And probably refresh the htaccess file permissions, I assume you've CHMODed .htaccess to 0644?

[vito201-:D]

And probably refresh the htaccess file permissions, I assume you've CHMODed .htaccess to 0644?

Yes I have... Google says it's most likely an Apache error though...