This study was conducted to investigate the effect of water-extraction process on the removal of major elements and heavy metals in the fly ash from Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator (MSWI), and their thermal stability in the following melting process. The water-extraction was first applied to extract soluble elements and heavy metals from the fly ash from MSWI at different liquid-to-solid rates (L/S) of 2, 5, and 10, respectively. The extracted fly ash and the raw fly ash were then melted at the temperatures of 1000-1350 degrees C in an electrically heated furnace. The results showed that the compounds of Ca, Na, K, and Cl achieved high removal rates of 30.7-72.8% at L/S = 10, respectively, Cr was the most extractable heavy metal with removal rate of 12.3% among the several heavy metals tested. The water-extracted fly ash had better stability as compared to raw one, which was indicated by lower weight loss and better immobilization ability of heavy metals such as Zn, Cu, and Pb in the melting process. The results showed that combing water-extraction and melting process could provide one of the alternatives for treating MSWI fly ash in China for reutilization. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.