The energetic pulsar PSR B1706 - 44 and the adjacent supernova remnant ( SNR ) candidate G 343.1 - 2.3 were observed by H.E.S.S .
during a dedicated observational campaign in 2007 .
A new source of very-high-energy ( VHE ; E > 100 GeV ) \gamma -ray emission , HESS J1708–443 , was discovered with its centroid at \alpha _ { 2000 } = 17 ^ { h } 8 ^ { m } 10 ^ { s } and \delta _ { 2000 } = - 44 ^ { \circ } 21 ^ { \prime } ( \pm 3 ^ { \prime } _ { \mathrm { stat } } on each axis ) The VHE \gamma -ray source is significantly more extended than the H.E.S.S .
point-spread function , with an intrinsic Gaussian width of 0.29 ^ { \circ } \pm 0.04 ^ { \circ } .
Its energy spectrum can be described by a power law with a photon index \Gamma = 2.0 \pm 0.1 _ { \mathrm { stat } } \pm 0.2 _ { \mathrm { sys } } .
The integral flux measured between 1 - 10 TeV is \sim 17 % of the Crab Nebula flux in the same energy range .
The possible associations with PSR B1706–44 and SNR G 343.1–2.3 are discussed .