BARCELONA Barcelona's Spanish international defender Carles Puyol will be one of the stars of the world cup, according to team mate Patrick Kluivert.

"Puyol is up there with the best defenders in the world and I believe he is the best in the Spanish league," the Dutch striker said in sports newspaper ****Mundo Deportivo**** on Monday.

"He will go to the world cup and I am certain he will stand out in the tournament."

Although Barcelona have shown indifferent league form this season, the 23-year-old right back has been outstanding with assured performances at the back and some increasingly dangerous surges in attack, the Reuters reported.

Although Kluivert grabbed the weekend headlines after scoring four in Barca's 6-0 crushing of Tenerife, the best goal of the night came from Puyol.

With a flourish more reminiscent of Rivaldo than a terrier-like right back, the young Catalan opened the floodgates when he smashed home barca's first with an acrobatic overhead kick after 16 minutes.

Puyol's spectacular strike earned him more admiration from the in-form Kluivert.

"What a fantastic goal. It's not often you see a defender finish like that with his back to goal," added Kluivert.

"Puyol is playing brilliantly in defence this season and now he is also scoring goals."

Kluivert also claims the rest of the Barcelona squad could learn a lot from their young team mate.

"He always plays with an exceptional desire to win. He plays full-out for the whole 90 minutes and never lets up," said Kluivert.

"If we all played with the same intensity and mentality we would be unbeatable."

Puyol has five international caps for Spain and is favorite to fill the right back Berth in Jose antonio Camacho's World Cup squad.

Spain open their world cup account against Slovenia in June 2, and will also face South Africa and Paraguay in group B.