ICELAND'S government will seek parliamentary approval to withdraw its application to join the European Union, opting not to restart accession talks that were put on ice a year ago.

A bill proposing the withdrawal was sent to parliament late on Friday and was due to be debated next week, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.

The move came after the parliamentary caucuses of the ruling parties - the centrist Progressive Party and the conservative Independence Party - voted on Friday to withdraw the application.

In comments on the proposal quoted by online news site Visir.is, the government said it "did not have a support base" to complete the accession process.

Opinion polls have consistently shown a majority of Icelanders oppose joining the EU.

Iceland was instead to focus on its ties with the EU as member of the European Economic Area (EEA) - the free trade zone comprising non-EU countries Liechtenstein and Norway as well as the 28-strong EU bloc.

Iceland opened membership talks in 2009 under a coalition that took office after the financial crisis in which Iceland's main banks collapsed.

The accession talks were put on ice ahead of general elections in April which resulted in a change of government, opposed to EU membership.