  The recent introduction of high resolution/large spectral range spectrographs
provided the opportunity to investigate in detail the chemical composition of
classical Cepheids. This paper is focussed on new abundance determinations for
iron and 6 light metals (O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca) in 30 Galactic Cepheids. We
also give a new estimate of the Galactic radial abundance gradient.
  The stellar effective temperatures have been determined using the method of
line depth ratios, while the surface gravity and the microturbulent velocity
v$_{t}$ by imposing the ionization balance between Fe I and Fe II and the help
of the curves of growth. Abundances were calculated with classical LTE
atmosphere models.
  Abundances are obtained with RMS accuracies of the order of 0.05-0.10 dex for
Fe, and 0.05-0.20 dex for the other elements. Cepheids in our sample have
solar-like abundances and current measurements agree quite-well with previous
determinations. We computed ``single zone'' Galactic radial abundance gradients
for the 8-12 kpc region and found a slope for iron of -0.061 dex kpc$^{-1}$.
