Newbie [CentOS 5.2] service postgresql initdb

While going through
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Detailed_installation_guides
and typing
service postgresql start
as root I got
"/var/lib/pgsql/data is missing. Use "service postgresql initdb" to
initialize the cluster first."

When I run
service postgresql initdb
I get
"se:     [FAILED]".
However, /var/lib/pqsql/data is created and user postgres owns it.

But then I run
service postgresql start
and the very same error occurs..

Daneel