An application of synergistic solvent extraction for the etermination of trace lithium in sea water has been studied by forming an adduct complex of thenoyltrifluoroacetone (TTA) and trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) in a solvent. The interference by major constituents in sea water was eliminated by phosphate precipitation. Ex-perimental conditions such as solution pH, concentrations of TTA and TOPO etc. were optimized in synthetic sea water with similar compositionto its natural counterpart. To eliminate the interference, 1.38g of ammoni-um dihydrogen phosphate and 2.5 mL of ammonia water were added into 100 mL of thediluted solution at $60^{circ}C$ to form the phosphate precipitates of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions. After the pH of this filtrate was adjusted to 8.0, 10.0 mL of m-xylene containing 0.1 M TTA and 0.05 M TOPO was added to the solution in a separatory funnel, and the solution was shaken vigorously for 20 minutes. The solvent was separated from the aqueous solution, and 20 uL of m-xylene solution was injected into a gaphite tube to measure the absorbance by GF-AAS. The detection limit was 0.42 ng/mL. Lithium was determined within the range of 146 to 221 ng/mLin Korean coast-al sea waters, and the recoveries in the spiked samples were 94 to 106%.