  We present the study of one year of INTEGRAL data on the neutron star low
mass X-ray binary GX 5-1. Thanks to the excellent angular resolution and
sensitivity of INTEGRAL, we are able to obtain a high quality spectrum of GX
5-1 from ~5 keV to ~100 keV, for the first time without contamination from the
nearby black hole candidate GRS 1758-258 above 20 keV. During our observations,
GX 5-1 is mostly found in the horizontal and normal branch of its hardness
intensity diagram. A clear hard X-ray emission is observed above ~30 keV which
exceeds the exponential cut-off spectrum expected from lower energies. This
spectral flattening may have the same origin of the hard components observed in
other Z sources as it shares the property of being characteristic to the
horizontal branch. The hard excess is explained by introducing Compton
up-scattering of soft photons from the neutron star surface due to a thin hot
plasma expected in the boundary layer. The spectral changes of GX 5-1 downward
along the "Z" pattern in the hardness intensity diagram can be well described
in terms of monotonical decrease of the neutron star surface temperature. This
may be a consequence of the gradual expansion of the boundary layer as the mass
accretion rate increases.
