The bonding nature between rare earth metals and fullerene molecules has been investigated. The electron density distribution for nominal Sm3C70, calculated by a maximum entropy method (MEM) based on the Rietveld analysis of synchrotron X-ray diffraction pattern, unambiguously demonstrated a covalent Sm-C bond, which is almost as strong as the interatomic bonding of crystal Si. Furthermore, the Sm bridges two C-70 molecules, producing a C-70-Sm-C-70 dimer structure. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.