ActionScript 3.0 :: Variable Definitions Using For Loop?

i need to create an arbitrary number of display objects using a for loop because the number of objects will depend on the number of items in an xml file.

so i want to control the objects using actionscript. in as 2 i could create a temp variable in the for loop and use attachMovie() and assign an instance name. i know in as 3 you can use the .name property, but i heard you had to use the variable handler to control the object.

so i can't do this because it generates an error:

var numOfItems:uint = 5;
for(var i:uint = 0; i < numOfItems; i++)
{
var mc[i]:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
}