We study the X-ray emission of a representative sample of 27 local luminous infrared galaxies ( LIRGs ) .
The median IR luminosity of our sample is \log L _ { IR } / L _ { \odot } = 11.2 , thus the low-luminosity end of the LIRG class is well represented .
We used new XMM-Newton data as well as Chandra and XMM-Newton archive data .
The soft X-ray ( 0.5-2 keV ) emission of most of the galaxies ( > 80 % ) , including LIRGs hosting a Seyfert 2 nucleus , is dominated by star-formation related processes .
These LIRGs follow the star-formation rate ( SFR ) versus soft X-ray luminosity correlation observed in local starbursts .
We find that \sim 15 % of the non-Seyfert LIRGs ( 3 out of 20 ) have an excess hard X-ray emission relative to that expected from star-formation that might indicate the presence of an obscured AGN .
The rest of the non-Seyfert LIRGs follow the SFR versus hard X-ray ( 2-10 keV ) luminosity correlation of local starbursts .
The non-detection of the 6.4 keV Fe K \alpha emission line in the non-Seyfert LIRGs allows us to put an upper limit to the bolometric luminosity of an obscured AGN , L _ { bol } < 10 ^ { 43 } erg s ^ { -1 } .
That is , in these galaxies , if they hosted a low luminosity AGN , its contribution to total luminosity would be less than 10 % .
Finally we estimate that the AGN contribution to the total luminosity for our sample of local LIRGs is between 7 % and 10 % .