4U 1344-60:: a bright intermediate Seyfert galaxy at z=0.012 with a relativistic FeKα emission line

We present analysis of the optical and X-ray spectra of the low Galactic latitude bright (F2-10 = 3.6 x 10(-11) erg cm(-2) s(-1)) source 4U 1344-60. On the basis of the optical data we propose to classify 4U 1344-60 as an intermediate type Seyfert galaxy and we measure a value of z = 0.012 +/- 0.001 for its redshift. From the XMM-Newton observation we find that the overall X-ray spectral shape of 4U 1344-60 is complex and can be described by a power-law continuum (Gamma approximate to 1.55) obscured by two neutral absorption components (N-H(f) similar to 10(22) cm(-2) and NpH similar to 4 x 10(22) cm(-2)), the latter covering only the similar to 50% of the primary X-ray source. The X-ray data therefore lend support to our classification of 4U 1344-60. It exhibits a broad and skewed Fe K alpha line at similar to 6.4 keV, which suggests the existence of an accretion disk that is able to reprocess the primary continuum down to a few gravitational radii. Such a line represents one of the clearest examples of a relativistic line observed by XMM-Newton so far. Our analysis has also revealed the marginal presence of two narrow line-like emission features at similar to 4.9 and similar to 5.2 keV.