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   53023
   Recent ROSAT observations revealed several HII objects with a soft X-
   ray luminosity up to $10^{43}$ erg/s and, in at least one case, a
   factor of one magnitude variability on short time scales. These objects
   may therefore harbour a hidden Seyfert nucleus. We propose to observe a
   sample of three HII galaxies, for which no measurement in the hard X-
   ray is available, in order to: a) reveal the hard X-ray emission to
   clarify its possible Seyfert-like origin; b) derive from the X-ray
   spectrum the properties of the absorber, whose presence would be
   required to account for the lack of narrow emission lines typical of
   Seyfert galaxies; c) study on a wider time and energy range the
   spectral variability associated with the large variations already
   observed in one of these objects.
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