The surface chemical structure of three kinds of polyethylene (PE): high density (HD) PE, low density (LD) PE and linear (L)-LDPE exposed to Ar and $O_2$ plasmas has been investigated using XPS. Oxygen was incorporated in a more increased amount for HDPE than for L-LDPE and LDPE. Ar plasma tended to incorporate more oxygen than $O_2$ plasma. The XPS valence band spectra for Ar plasma exhibited a clear peak assigned to $O_2$s character. By chemical derivatization method it was found that the amount of -COOH group at the surface was much greater than that of -OH group. The hydrophilic nature of plasma-treated PE increased in the order: LDPE <L-LDPE<HDPE, this order being in agreement with that of the amount of oxygen incorporated at the surface.