Oxidative electropolymerization of resorcinol, catechol and pyrogallol at the glassy carbon electrode in different media such as 0.10 M NaOH, 0.10 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.00) or 0.10 M NaClO 4 all gave water-insoluble ®lms, adherent on the electrode surface. Amongst them electropolymerization of catechol at the GC electrode in 0.10 M NaOH provided a highly sensitive and selective ®lm for Ce(III) and therefore, this poly(catechol) ®lm modi®ed glassy carbon electrode was exploited for the selective preconcentration of Ce(III) at open circuit, followed by its determination by differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry both in batch and¯ow systems. Factors affecting the accumulation, stripping and removal steps were investigated and an optimized procedure was then developed. Under optimized conditions, for batch determination, the calibration plot was linear in the concentration ranges 2X00 Â 10 À9 M 1X00 Â 10 À8 M and 2X00 Â 10 À8 M 1X00 Â 10 À7 M Ce(III). A detection limit of 2X0 Â 10 À10 M (0.027 ppb) (SN 3) was found for a 10 min accumulation. For six successive determinations of Ce(III) at concentrations of 2X00 Â 10 À7 , 2X00 Â 10 À8 and 2X00 Â 10 À9 M, relative standard deviations were 3.36 %, 1.76 % and 4.08 %, respectively. Similar results were obtained for continuous¯ow analysis. Interference from selected foreign ions and substances were examined. The developed method was applied to Ce(III) determination in human urine, both in batch and continuous¯ow systems.