DUTCH football star Patrick Kluivert today denied causing death by dangerous driving, but admitted he had been going too fast before crashing into another car, killing a man.

A prosecuting lawyer earlier demanded that the 19-year-old Ajax Amsterdam striker serve at least six months in jail as punishment for the incident. However he did not oppose a community service order, effectively signalling that Kluivert would spend no time behind bars.

Kluivert, valued at close to #7.7m, is charged with causing death by dangerous driving after his borrowed and uninsured BMW ploughed into another car, killing the driver and injuring a passenger in Amsterdam last September.

He has admitted speeding and has not contested the charges.

Kluivert was not required to speak or even enter a formal plea during the hearing, but his lawyer, Manfred Nan, said he was innocent. ``There is no causal link between the speed (at which he was driving) and the crash,'' said Nan. Conviction carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail or a 10,000 guilder (#3875) fine and five-year driving ban.

Prosecutor Anton Schotman earlier demanded a jail sentence of nine months, of which three months would be conditional with a two-year probationary period, plus a two-year driving ban.

But he said that the state would not oppose a solution that allowed the footballer to escape a term in custody: ``If the defendant agrees to substitute six months' jail with community service, I shall not oppose it.''

Kluivert, accompanied by Ajax club officials and members of his family, earlier admitted breaking the inner-city speed limit of 50km (31mph), but told Judge Rob Blekxtoon that he had been driving at no more than 75kph (47mph) at the time of the accident.

Eyewitness and police reports read out in court testified to him driving at more than 100kph (62mph).

The father-in-law of the dead man, Marten Putman, who saw the collision from his bedroom window, told the three-judge panel that Kluivert was driving at 100kph at least.

``It (the car) looked like a rocket,'' Putman said. Another witness, a woman cyclist, said: ``The car was driving at enormous speed. It passed me in a flash and when it crossed a bridge all four wheels were off the road.''

Kluivert, who grew up in north Amsterdam and joined Ajax's celebrated youth programme as a seven-year-old, is a prodigious talent who has won the hearts of the Dutch nation and attracted scouts from top European clubs.

However the incident has prompted written death threats and racial abuse to his family, who are of Surinamese descent.

One newspaper said today that the family may even move to the Dutch Antilles because of the abuse.

Community service would allow Kluivert to continue playing for Ajax and would free him to play for the Dutch team in this summer's European championships in England.

In only two seasons at the top level, Kluivert has scored 44 goals in 79 league and cup matches for his club and has bagged three goals in six games since making his international debut.

However in an interview published in the Dutch football magazine Voetbal International today, Kluivert, going on record for the first time since the September 9 crash, said that ``the child in me has died''.

A court spokesman said the verdict and sentence would be handed down on May 14.-Reuter.