| Abstract
| - Abstract. Hard X-ray selection is the most efficient way to discriminate between accretion-powered sources, such as active galactic nuclei (AGN), and sources dominated by starlight. Hard X-rays are also less affected than other bands by obscuration. We have therefore carried out the BeppoSAX High Energy Large Area Survey (HELLAS) in the largely unexplored 5-10 keV band, finding 180 sources in ∼50 deg2 of sky with flux≳5×10−14 erg cm−2 s−1. After correction for the non-uniform sky coverage this corresponds to resolving about 30 per cent of the hard cosmic X-ray background (XRB). Here we report on a first optical spectroscopic identification campaign, finding 12 AGN out of 14 X-ray error boxes studied. Seven AGN show evidence for obscuration in X-ray and optical bands, a fraction higher than in previous ROSAT or ASCA-ROSAT surveys (at 95-99 and 90 per cent confidence levels respectively), thus supporting the scenario in which a significant fraction of the XRB is created by obscured AGN.
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