A selective flame atomic absorption spectrometric method has been developed for the determination of trace amount of metal ions after preconcentration on salicylic acid (SA) loaded Amberlite XAD-4 resin (AXAD-4) at suitable pH. The chelating resin AXAD-4-SA was characterized based on FTIR, thermal and chemical stability, and hydrogen ion capacity. The sorption capacity was found to be 245.0, 156.2, 155.0, 145.0, 125.0, 122.5, and 70 mu mol g(-1) for Cu(II), Cr(III), Zn(II), Cd(II), Mn(II), Ni(II), and Co(II), respectively with t(1/2) < 15 min. All the metals could be eluted by 5 mL of 4 mol L-1 HCl/HNO3 resulting in high preconcentration factor of 200-360 up to a low preconcentration limit of 5.5-10 mu g L-1. The accuracy and precision of the developed method was checked by analyzing standard reference materials. The experimental values were not statistically significant from the certified values with < 5% RSD. The detection limits were found to be 0.42, 0.57, 0.63, 0.77, 0.94, 0.96, and 1.41 mu g L-1, respectively. The analytical utility of the AXAD-4-SA for preconcentration and determination of metal ions was explored by analyzing river, canal, sewage, and tap water by direct as well as standard addition method. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 123: 3448-3458, 2012