wxWidgets loading shared library problem

My environment consists of the following:
GTK+ 2.8
wxWidgets 2.6.3

The following compile/link does not generate any errors:

g++ test.cpp `wx-config --libs --cxxflags` -o testit

But when I execute it I get the following message:

./testit: error while loading shared libraries: libw_gtk2_xrc-2.6.so.0:
Cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Can anybody tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanx

Found an awkward solution to my problem in the wxWidgets docs:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib ./testit

After reading some internet documentation on LD_LIBRARY_PATH, it appears that setting this variable globally is NOT a good idea. Can anybody suggest any alternatives to using the LD_LIBARARY_PATH variable?

Thanx