creating an ftp server .. minor issue

[iinfi]

its been some time since i have done this and now i am facing some issues.

i need to create just an anonymous ftp server using vsftpd.

# Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).
anonymous_enable=YES
anon_root=/ftp/

when i leave the anon_root parameter to default i dont face any issue. when i change it to /ftp with file permissions as below

[root@localhost ~]# ll / | grep ftp
drwxrwxrwx   3 ftp  ftp   4096 Apr  4 16:04 ftp
[root@localhost ~]#

i get the following error

[root@client ~]# ftp 192.168.5.221
Connected to 192.168.5.221.
220 Welcome to blah FTP service.
530 Please login with USER and PASS.
530 Please login with USER and PASS.
KERBEROS_V4 rejected as an authentication type
Name (192.168.5.221:root): ftp
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
500 OOPS: cannot change directory:/ftp
Login failed.
ftp>

when i dont change the anon_root parameter i dont face any issue and if i type ftp://192.168.5.221 the pub folder shows up.

but when i change the parameter i get a login box and whatever i do i cannot login to the ftp server.

plz help

[iinfi]

update:
the system which i m using is RHEL 5.3


and i just found out that if i keep SE Linux as permissive or disabled things work as they should. and i changed the owner and group of /ftp to root:root

ftp://192.168.5.221 takes me to the contents of the /ftp drive

does anyone know how to proceed with SE Linux kept on?

thanks