We study the acceleration of test particles near a static magnetic x line with a uniform electric field and a strong component of the magnetic field, B∥ , parallel to the x line. The energy spectrum of the accelerated particles is found analytically in the nonrelativistic limit, showing good agreement with numerical simulations. At high energies, the spectrum decays exponentially with a characteristic energy very different from that found in studies assuming B∥=0. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1992