You can build apt from arch, but this needs the following additional
packages (in addtion to the usual build-depends):
-xmlto perlsgml sgml2x sgmlspl docbook
+autoconf automake xmlto perlsgml sgml2x sgmlspl docbook
then run:
-debian/rules arch-build
+$ debian/rules arch-build
+
+that will build packages in the "debian/arch-build" directory. It will
+honor "DEB_BUILD_PROG_OPTS" as options that are passed to debuild (e.g. -S
+may be usefull).