Simple code, confusing error

I am new to actionscript however I am not new to programming. I use flex, as3 and Flashdevelop as developing environment. I have this simple code in an external .as file and I am trying to compile it:

Code:

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                        import flash.net.NetConnection;
                       
                        var nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection();
                        var clientObject:Object=new Object();
                        nc.client = clientObject;

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I get the following errors:

Quote:

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C:\wamp\www\flashdevelop test\src\flashdeveloptest.as(12): Error: Access of undefined property nc.
nc.client = clientObject;
C:\wamp\www\flashdevelop test\src\flashdeveloptest.as(12): Error: Access of undefined property clientObject.
nc.client = clientObject;
Build halted with errors (fcsh).

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What am I missing? Thank you for any help.

(It does not help to put 'public' before 'var' inte the variables.)