[Vala] Regex Question

["Starr, Larry A" <LarryA Starr intel com>]

Hello Everyone, I am new to Vala programming.
I'm having a problem compiling the following simple regular expression with Vala 0.7.5.

void println (string str) {
    stdout.printf ("%s\n", str);
}

int main (string[] args) {
    string s ;
    try {
        //var regex = new Regex ("(jaguar|tiger|leopard)");
        var regex = new Regex ("/\*.*?\*/");
        s = "wolf, tiger, eagle, jaguar, leopard, bear";
        println (regex.replace (s, -1, 0, "kitty"));
    } catch (RegexError e) {
        warning ("%s", e.message);
    }

    return 0;
}


When I try to compile it, I get the following errors:
filc20059> valac regex.vala
regex.vala:9.36-9.36: error: invalid escape sequence
        var regex = new Regex ("/\*.*?\*/");
                                   ^
regex.vala:9.41-9.41: error: invalid escape sequence
        var regex = new Regex ("/\*.*?\*/");
                                        ^
Compilation failed: 2 error(s), 0 warning(s)

The regex is strait from the glib documentation at 
http://library.gnome.org/devel/glib/stable/glib-regex-syntax.html
On the section about greediness.
Can anyone Please help me out and point out what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Larry