We present the Darboux transformation and the N-soliton solution for the mu
lti-component integrable equations which are associated with the Hermitian
symmetric spaces. Using the Darboux covariance, we derive new integrable eq
uations as well as known ones including the multi-component extensions of t
he nonlinear Schrodinger, the modified KdV, the SIT and the sine-Gordon equ
ations. We also derive a closed form of the N-soliton solution in terms of
the generalized Crum's formula. The projection property of the Darboux tran
sformation is explained. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.