  In A0-1 we proposed an ambitious long-term survey of selected regions of our
Galaxy (the XGPS survey) using the EPIC CCD cameras on XMM-Newton. The first
phase of the programme, which aims to survey a strip of the Galactic Plane in
the Scutum region, is currently underway. Here we report on the preliminary
results from the first 15 survey pointings. We show that the XGPS survey
strategy of fairly shallow (5-10 ks) exposures but wide-angle coverage is well
tuned to the goal of providing a large catalogue of predominantly Galactic
sources at relatively faint X-ray fluxes in the hard 2-6 keV band.
