The French Polynesian president, Gaston Flosse, has asked France to organise a referendum on self-determination.
The request has been made in a letter to the president, Francois Hollande, after the French Polynesian assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution for such a plebiscite last week.
The move follows last month's United Nations General Assembly decision by consensus to reinscribe French Polynesia on the UN list of territories to be decolonised.
Both France and the new majority in the French Polynesian assembly wanted the territory to remain off the list.
The assembly has also passed a resolution asking the UN to revisit its decision and rescind the re-inscription.
There has been no word from Paris since the UN vote on whether it plans to hold a self-determination referendum.
The pro-independence opposition wants the UN to help supervise ties with France and get Paris to agree to restrict the electorate in any such referendum to long-term residents.
