  Motivated by the recently discovered class of faint (10^34-10^35 ergs/s)
X-ray transients in the Galactic Center region, we investigate the 2-10 keV
properties of classical and recurrent novae. Existing data are consistent with
the idea that all classical novae are transient X-ray sources with durations of
months to years and peak luminosities in the 10^34-10^35 ergs/s range. This
makes classical novae a viable candidate class for the faint Galactic Center
transients. We estimate the rate of classical novae within a 15 arcmin radius
region centered on the Galactic Center (roughly the field of view of XMM-Newton
observations centered on Sgr A*) to be ~0.1 per year. Therefore, it is
plausible that some of the Galactic Center transients that have been announced
to date are unrecognized classical novae. The continuing monitoring of the
Galactic Center region carried out by Chandra and XMM-Newton may therefore
provide a new method to detect classical novae in this crowded and obscured
region, where optical surveys are not, and can never hope to be, effective.
Therefore, X-ray monitoring may provide the best means of testing the
completeness of the current understanding of the nova populations.
