We introduce the notion of a hamiltonian 2-form on a Kähler manifold and obtain a
complete local classification. This notion appears to play a pivotal role in several aspects of Kähler
geometry. In particular, on any Kähler manifold with co-closed Bochner tensor, the (suitably normalized)
Ricci form is hamiltonian, and this leads to an explicit description of these Kähler metrics, which we
call weakly Bochner-flat. Hamiltonian 2-forms also arise on conformally Einstein Kähler manifolds and
provide an Ansatz for extremal Kähler metrics unifying and extending many previous constructions.