no, you can not. look at the following error message in gcc
ref.c: In function `int main()':
ref.c:6: initialization of non-const reference type `int&' from rvalue of type
`int'
ref.c:6: warning: initialization to non-pointer type `int' from NULL
ref.c:6: warning: argument to non-pointer type `int' from NULL
[gdc5e46:(allanz)]>cat -n ref.c
1 #include <iostream>
2 int main()
3 {
4 int j=8;
5 //int &i=j;
6 int &i=NULL;
7 }