My singleton template does'nt work

Hi,

This singleton code doesn't work :

////////////////////////////////////////////////////       code                  /////////////:

#ifndef __SINGLETON
#define __SINGLETON

#include <stddef.h>

template<typename T>
class Singleton
{
protected:
    Singleton()   {}
    ~Singleton() { _singleton = NULL;}

public:
    static T inline *getInstance()
    {
          if ((static_cast<T*>(NULL)) == _singleton) {  _singleton = new T; }
          return (static_cast<T*>(_singleton));
    }

    static void kill()
    {
         if (NULL != _singleton)
         {
              delete _singleton;
              _singleton = NULL;
        }
    }

private:
    static T *_singleton;
};

template<typename T>
T *Singleton<T>::_singleton = (static_cast<T*>(NULL));

#endif

/////////////////////////// end of code //////////////////////////////////////////////

In  my case, "_singleton" variable  is always null, even after instantiation.

Is this a compiler/linker problem?

Must I use special options   ?

Note : Templates without static variables are working on the same environment.

Thanks by advance.

Gilles Peltier