distutils gcc unix

[Michiel Jan Laurens de Hoon]

I am trying to compile a python extension with python setup.py install 
on a unix system. Distutils takes the cc compiler instead of the gcc 
compiler, which is also available on the system. Unfortunately, my 
extension doesn't compile with cc, it needs gcc. Is there some way to 
tell distutils to use the gcc compiler? I have tried things like
python setup.py build --compiler=gcc
but it didn't know 'gcc'. When I try
python setup.py build --compiler=cygwin
it uses the gcc compiler, but of course not with the right options to 
the compiler.

It is possible to specify which compiler distutils should use?

Many thanks in advance,

Michiel de Hoon
University of Tokyo, Human Genome Center