I have the same problem:

root@ubuntu-server:/etc/smbind# cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 11.04 \n \l
root@ubuntu-server:/etc/smbind# named -v
BIND 9.7.3

smbind ver 0.48

root@ubuntu-server:/etc/smbind# ls -al /etc/bind/
total 68
drwxrws---  2 root     bind 4096 2011-05-24 14:20 .
drwxr-xr-x 89 root     root 4096 2011-05-24 15:41 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root 2544 2011-04-01 01:10 bind.keys
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root  237 2011-04-01 01:10 db.0
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root  271 2011-04-01 01:10 db.127
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root  237 2011-04-01 01:10 db.255
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root  353 2011-04-01 01:10 db.empty
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root  270 2011-04-01 01:10 db.local
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root 2994 2011-04-01 01:10 db.root
-rw-r--r--  1 root     bind  498 2011-05-23 17:48 named.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root     bind  490 2011-04-01 01:10 named.conf.default-zones
-rw-r--r--  1 root     bind 1002 2011-05-22 09:34 named.conf.local
-rw-r--r--  1 root     bind  572 2011-04-01 01:10 named.conf.options
-rw-r--r--  1 root     bind   77 2011-05-22 02:59 rndc.key
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root 1317 2011-04-01 01:10 zones.rfc1918

root@ubuntu-server:/etc/smbind# ls -al
total 28
drwxrwxr-x  3 root     bind     4096 2011-05-23 16:53 .
drwxr-xr-x 89 root     root     4096 2011-05-24 15:41 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 www-data bind      197 2010-09-06 03:58 apache.conf
-rw-r-----  1 www-data www-data  537 2011-05-23 16:53 config-db.php
-rw-r--r--  1 www-data bind       54 2010-09-06 03:58 lighttpd.conf
-rw-rw-r--  1 www-data bind       64 2011-05-24 10:21 smbind.conf
drwxrwxr--  2 www-data bind     4096 2010-10-16 03:18 zones

root@ubuntu-server:/etc/smbind# cat /etc/bind/named.conf
// This is the primary configuration file for the BIND DNS server named.
//
// Please read /usr/share/doc/bind9/README.Debian.gz for information on the 
// structure of BIND configuration files in Debian, *BEFORE* you customize 
// this configuration file.
//
// If you are just adding zones, please do that in /etc/bind/named.conf.local

include "/etc/bind/named.conf.options";
include "/etc/bind/named.conf.local";
include "/etc/bind/named.conf.default-zones";
include "/etc/smbind/smbind.conf";


root@ubuntu-server:/etc/smbind# named -g -d 1
24-May-2011 15:40:40.963 starting BIND 9.7.3 -g -d 1
24-May-2011 15:40:40.963 built with '--prefix=/usr' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--sysconfdir=/etc/bind' '--localstatedir=/var' '--enable-threads' '--enable-largefile' '--with-libtool' '--enable-shared' '--enable-static' '--with-openssl=/usr' '--with-gssapi=/usr' '--with-gnu-ld' '--with-dlz-postgres=no' '--with-dlz-mysql=yes' '--with-dlz-bdb=yes' '--with-dlz-filesystem=yes' '--with-dlz-ldap=yes' '--with-dlz-stub=yes' '--with-geoip=/usr' '--enable-ipv6' 'CFLAGS=-fno-strict-aliasing -DDIG_SIGCHASE -O2' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions' 'CPPFLAGS='
24-May-2011 15:40:40.963 adjusted limit on open files from 4096 to 1048576
24-May-2011 15:40:40.963 found 1 CPU, using 1 worker thread
24-May-2011 15:40:40.964 using up to 4096 sockets
24-May-2011 15:40:40.971 decrement_reference: delete from rbt: 0xb77e50b0 .
24-May-2011 15:40:40.980 loading configuration from '/etc/bind/named.conf'
24-May-2011 15:40:40.981 /etc/bind/named.conf:12: open: /etc/smbind/smbind.conf: permission denied
24-May-2011 15:40:40.984 load_configuration: permission denied
24-May-2011 15:40:40.984 loading configuration: permission denied
24-May-2011 15:40:40.984 exiting (due to fatal error)