A facile and less expensive monophosphinite ligand 2-(diphenylphosphinoxy)-naphthyl, C10H7OPPh2 (1) has been synthesized from the reaction of P-naphthol with chlorodiphenylphosphine. The mixture of Pd(OAc)(2) and 1 catalyzes the Suzuki cross-coupling of a variety of aryl halides with aryl boronic acids at room temperature or at 60 degrees C, giving generally high yields even under low catalytic loads. The effect of solvent, base and catalyst loading on the coupling reaction of aryl halide with arylboronic acid is also described. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.