Context :

Aims : The ROSAT ALL Sky Survey Bright Source Catalogue ( RASS-BSC ) has been correlated with the Catalogue of Principal Galaxies ( PGC ) to identify new extragalactic counterparts .
550 reliable optical counterparts have been detected .
However there existed no optical spectra for about 200 Active Galactic Nuclei ( AGN ) candidates before the ROSAT ALL Sky Survey ( RASS ) was been completed .

Methods : We took optical spectra of 176 X-ray candidates and companions at ESO , Calar Alto observatory and McDonald observatory .
When necessary we used a line profile decomposition to measure line fluxes , widths and centers to classify their type of activity .

Results : We discuss the redshift- , linewidth- , as well as optical and X-ray luminosity distribution of our ROSAT selected sample .
139 galaxies of our 166 X-ray counterparts have been identified as AGN with 93 being Seyfert 1 galaxies ( 61 % ) .
Eighteen of them ( 20 % ) are Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies .
34 X-ray candidates ( 21 % ) are LINERs and only eight candidates ( 5 % ) are Seyfert 2 .
The ratio of the number of Seyfert 1 galaxies to Seyfert 2 galaxies is about 11/1 .
Optical surveys result in ratios of 1/1.4 .
The high fraction of detected Seyfert 1 galaxies is explained by the sensitivity of the ROSAT to soft X-rays which are heavily absorbed in type 2 AGN .
Two X-ray candidates are HII-galaxies and 25 candidates ( 15 % ) show no signs of spectral activity .
The AGN in our RASS selected sample exhibit slightly higher optical luminosities ( M _ { B } = ( -20.71 \pm 1.75 ) mag ) and similar X-ray luminosities ( \log ( L _ { \mathrm { X } } [ erg s ^ { -1 } ] ) = 42.9 \pm 1.7 ) compared to other AGN surveys .
The H \alpha line width distribution ( FWHM ) of our newly identified ROSAT AGN sample is similar to the line widths distribution based on SDSS AGN .
However , our newly identified RASS AGN have rather reddish colors explaining why they have not been detected before in ultraviolet or blue excess surveys .

Conclusions :