  We present spectroscopic observations of six optical counterparts of
intermediate luminosity X-ray sources (ULXs) around nearby galaxies. The
spectra of the six objects show the presence of broad emission features. The
identification of these allow us to classify all of the objects as quasars at
higher redshift than their assigned parent galaxy. This is one of the first and
largest identifications of such objects using unambigous optical spectral
features. These results, in conjuction with previous similar identifications of
other sources, indicate that high redshift quasars represent an important
fraction of catalogued ULX sources. We estimate the density of such sources and
compare this with expectations for a population of randomly distributed
background quasars.
