  We present results from a BeppoSAX observation of the rich cluster Abell
3266. The broad band spectrum (2-50 keV) of the cluster, when fitted with an
optically thin thermal emission model, yields a temperature of 8.1 +/- 0.2 keV
and a metal abundance of 0.17 +/- 0.02 in solar units, and with no evidence of
a hard X-ray excess in the PDS spectrum. By performing a spatially resolved
spectral analysis we find that the projected temperature drops with increasing
radius, going from ~ 10 keV at the cluster core to ~ 5 keV at about 1.5 Mpc.
Our BeppoSAX temperature profile is in good agreement with the ASCA temperature
profile of Markevitch et al. (1998). From our two-dimensional temperature map
we find that the gradient is observed in all azimuthal directions. The
temperature gradient may have been caused by a recent merger event also
responsible for a velocity dispersion gradient measured in the optical band.
The projected metal abundance profile and two-dimensional map are both
consistent with being constant.
