  Hard X-ray selection is the most efficient way to discriminate between
accretion-powered sources, such as AGN, from sources dominated by starlight.
Hard X-rays are also less affected than other bands by obscuration. We have
then carried out the BeppoSAX High Energy Large Area Survey (HELLAS) in the
largely unexplored 5-10 keV band, finding 180 sources in ~50 deg^2 of sky with
flux >5E-14 erg cm-2 s-1. After correction for the non uniform sky coverage
this corresponds to resolving about 30 % of the hard Cosmic X-ray Background
(XRB). Here we report on a first optical spectroscopic identification campaign,
finding 12 AGN out of 14 X-ray error-boxes studied. Seven AGN show evidence for
obscuration in X-ray and optical bands, a fraction higher than in previous
ROSAT or ASCA-ROSAT surveys (at a 95-99 % and 90 % confidence level
respectively), thus supporting the scenario in which a significant fraction of
the XRB is made by obscured AGN.
