1. Introduction
2. The XMM-Newton Wide Angle Survey (XWAS)
2.1. The X-ray data
3. Spectral analysis
3.1. X-ray spectral extraction
3.2. Spectral fitting
4. Results and discussion
4.1. The broad band X-ray continuum
4.2. X-ray absorption
4.3. Soft excess
5. Conclusions