The French Polynesian assembly has approved a resolution asking the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, to reinscribe French Polynesia on the UN decolonisation list.
30 voted for the resolution, 26 against and one assembly member abstained.
The resolution is now to be sent to the United Nations and is expected to be presented to next month's Pacific Islands Forum where the French Polynesian president, Oscar Temaru, is expected to lobby leaders for their support.
In a heated debate, a leading opposition politician, Gaston Flosse, says the vote is in vain because France will send its foreign minister to the Forum in New Zealand next month to seek its solidarity with Paris against the decolonisation bid.
In the Pacific, France has only reinscribed New Caledonia on the list which the UN drew up after the Second World War.
Mr Sarkozy has ruled out any perspective of the territory being put back on the UN decolonisation list, saying he would protect the French Polyensians against such talk.
