  We present the first measurement of the pseudorapidity density of primary
charged particles in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200GeV. For the 6% most
central collisions, we obtain dN_ch/deta|_|eta|<1 = 650 +/- 35 (syst). Compared
to collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130GeV, the highest energy studied previously, an
increase by a factor of 1.14 +/- 0.05 is found. The energy dependence of the
pseudorapidity density is discussed in comparison with data from proton-induced
collisions and theoretical predictions.
