ROSAT survey of X-ray sources in the Magellanic Clouds

More than 250 pointed observations of the Magellanic Clouds were performed with the ROSAT PSPC during its nominal operation phase. From an analysis of the images we obtained a list of about 750 point-like sources in the LMC and more than 500 sources in the SMC region. In combination with the ROSAT all-sky survey this large amount of data offers the unique opportunity to study the detailed physical properties of individual X-ray sources as well as the global statistical properties of different types of X-ray sources of a small galaxy as a whole. We report on the first results obtained from cross-correlations of our PSPC source catalogues with catalogues from other wavelength bands. Proper selection criteria, based on comparisons with known sources, permits the identification of new candidates for various source classes in the Magellanic Clouds such as supersoft sources, X-ray binaries and supernova remnants, and makes it possible to discriminate them from foreground stars and background objects.