Speaker: Dr. Stefano Bianchi, 3rd Univ. of Rome, Italy

Title: "The nature of the soft X-ray emission in obscured AGN"

Abstract: The origin of the soft X-ray emission in obscured Active
Galactic Nuclei was still largely unknown before the launch of
XMM-Newton and Chandra. However, important progress has been made thanks
to the high energy and spatial resolution of these two X-ray missions.
We review here the latest results on this issue, focussing on the
physical properties of the material responsible for the soft X-ray
emission and its relation to the circumnuclear environment. In
particular, we show that all pieces of evidence point to a scenario,
where this gas is photoionised by the AGN and is spatially coincident
with the optical Narrow Line Region.