A procedure for the preconcentration and determination of lead in vegetable and biological samples was developed in the continuous mode coupled to a flame atomic absorption spectrometer. Lead is quantitatively preconcentrated in acetic buffer as its diethyldithiocarbamate chelate onto a C-18 minicolumn, placed in the loop of a proportional injector, eluted by a stream of methyl isobutyl ketone and introduced directly into the nebuliser. A detection limit of 3 microg 1(-1) is obtained using a time-based technique for 2 min preconcentration and an RSD of 3.8% was readily achieved for three measurements of 25 microg Pb 1(-1). The sample throughput is 24 h(-1). Using preconcentration times of 10 min an enrichment factor of 189 can be obtained. The continuous flow system was used for some reference sample analysis and the obtained results reveal that the methodology can be easily applied for vegetable and biological sample analysis.