A method and an apparatus for priority based inter-radio access technology (inter-RAT) cell reselection are provided. In the existing algorithm for priority based inter-RAT cell reselection, an inter-RAT cell whose signal strength is above a preset threshold for a given duration is considered as satisfying the cell reselection criteria and may become a candidate for cell reselection. In this case, among those cells whose signal strength is above the preset threshold, a cell that does not have the highest priority may be selected. To address the above problem, the reference time duration for cell reselection may be changed. The enhanced cell reselection algorithm selects a cell having the highest priority among cells whose signal strength is above a preset threshold. Hence, it is possible to prevent repetition of unnecessary cell reselection.