  The study of Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is a key field to expand our
understanding of several astrophysical and cosmological phenomena. SVOM is a
Chinese-French Mission which will permit to detect and rapidly locate GRBs, in
particular those at high redshift, and to study their multiwavelength emission.
The SVOM satellite, to be launched in 2013, will carry wide field instruments
operating in the X/gamma-ray band and narrow field optical and soft X-ray
telescopes. Here we describe a small soft X-ray telescope (XIAO) proposed as an
Italian contribution to the SVOM mission. Thanks to a grazing incidence X-ray
telescope with effective area of ~120 cm^2 and a short focal length, coupled to
a very compact, low noise, fast read out CCD camera, XIAO can substantially
contribute to the overall SVOM capabilities for both GRB and non-GRB science.
