  Scans of the Galactic plane performed at regular intervals constitute a key
element of the guaranteed time observations of the INTEGRAL observing
programme. These scans are done for two reasons: frequent monitoring of the
Galactic plane in order to detect transient sources, and time resolved mapping
of the Galactic plane in continuum and diffuse line emission. This paper
describes first results obtained from the Galactic plane scans executed so far
during the early phase (Dec 2002 - May 2003) of the nominal mission.
