Unveiling the nature of the highly absorbed X-ray source SAX J1748.2-2808 with XMM-Newton

We report on the results of an EPIC XMM-Newton observation of the faint source SAX J1748.2-2808 and the surrounding field. This source was discovered during the BeppoSAX Galactic center survey performed in 1997-1998. A spatial analysis resulted in the detection of 31 sources within the EPIC field of view. SAX J1748.2-2808 is clearly resolved into 2 sources in EPIC images with the brighter contributing almost 80% of the 2-10 keV flux. Spectral fits to this main source are consistent with an absorbed power-law with a photon index of 1.4 +/- 0.5 and absorption equivalent to 14(-4)(+6) x 10(22) cm(-2) together with an iron line at 6.6(-0.2)(+0.2) keV with an equivalent width of 780(-380)(+620) eV. The significantly better statistics of the XMM-Newton observation, compared with BeppoSAX, allows to exclude a thermal nature for the X-ray emission. A comparison with other observations of SAXJ1748.2-2808 does not reveal any evidence for spectral or intensity long-term variability. Based on these properties we propose that the source is a low-luminosity high-mass X-ray binary located in the Galactic center region.