We report the discovery with BeppoSAX of a new 170.84 \pm 0.04 s X-ray pulsar , 1SAX J1324.4 - 6200 , found serendipitously in the field of the X-ray binary XB 1323 - 619 in 1997 August .
The source and periodicity are also detected in archival ASCA data taken in 1994 .
The X-ray spectrum is modeled by a power-law with a photon index of 1.0 \pm 0.4 and absorption of ( 7.8 \pm ^ { 2.7 } _ { 1.1 } ) \times 10 ^ { 22 } atom cm ^ { -2 } .
The source is located close to the galactic plane and within 3 ^ { \prime } of the direction of the dark cloud DC 306.8+0.6 .
The measured interstellar absorption and cloud size imply a distance > 3.4 kpc .
This implies a 1–10 keV source luminosity of > 1.1 \times 10 ^ { 34 } erg s ^ { -1 } during the BeppoSAX observation .
The source is not detected in earlier Einstein IPC and EXOSAT CMA observations , most probably due to reduced detector efficency and lower sensitivity to highly absorbed sources .
The X-ray properties suggest that 1SAX J1324.4 - 6200 is an accreting neutron star with a Be star companion .