  We report first results from our ground-based infrared imaging search for
sub-stellar companions (brown dwarfs and giant planets) of young (up to 100
Myrs) nearby (up to 75 pc) stars, where companions should be well separated
from the central stars and still relatively bright due to ongoing accretion
and/or contraction. Among our targets are all members of the TW Hya
association, as well as other binary and single young stars either discovered
recently among ROSAT sources (some of which as yet unpublished) or known
before. Our observations are performed mainly with SOFI and SHARP at the ESO
3.5m NTT on La Silla and with ISAAC at the ESO 8.2m Antu (VLT-UT1) on Cerro
Paranal, all in the H- and K-bands. We present direct imaging data and H-band
spectroscopy of a faint object detected next to TWA-7 which, if at the same age
and distance as the central star, could be an object with only a few Jupiter
masses. Our spectrum shows, though, that it is a background K-dwarf.
