Summary: A new algorithm, which combines the spectral element method with elastic viscous splitting stress method, has been developed for viscoelastic fluid flows in a planar contraction channel. The system of spectral element approximations to the velocity, pressure, extra stress and the rate of deformation variables is solved by a preconditioned conjugate gradient method based on the Uzawa iteration procedure. The numerical approach is implemented on a planar four-to-one contraction channel for a fluid governed by an Oldroyd-B constitutive equation. The behaviour of the Oldroyd-B fluids in the contraction channel is investigated at various Weissenberg numbers. It is shown that numerical solutions obtained here agree well with experimental measurements and other numerical predictions.