Getting record counts using SQL%rowcount

I am trying to run a script in SQL Plus that will execute a bunch of report queries giving the number of rows returned after each one. What I have below (an example) doens't work and Oracle chokes. Why doesn't it like SQL%rowcount?

select 1 from dual; --fake report query

select SQL%rowcount from dual;

select 2 from dual; --fake report query

select SQL%rowcount from dual; Received on Tue Oct 03 2006 - 15:26:34 CDT