The Scottish Greens have called on the First Minister to press ahead with her plans to hold a second independence referendum.

The party's co-conveners Patrick Harvie and Maggie Chapman have written a joint letter to the SNP leader urging her "resist" calls to scrap the vote and "continue fighting" for the referendum.

Following the this month's general elections result, where the SNP lost 21 seats, Nicola Sturgeon said she would "reflect" on the outcome and conceded her push for independence was "undoubtedly" a factor in her party's loss of support.

Green MSPs voted with the SNP to seek permission from Downing Street in March for an independence vote.

The request was quickly rejected by the Prime Minister who said "now is not the time" for another referendum.

In the letter, the pair write: "Following the 2017 general election, it is clear that some are making the case that the relative fortunes of the political parties in Scotland give a basis for claiming that the right of people in Scotland to decide their constitutional future has been 'rejected'. We cannot accept this, and we urge you not to."

They added: "The stakes are too high for our future to be decided yet again by a government that we did not elect, enforcing a Hard Brexit for which they received no mandate from Scotland in last year's referendum and which was rejected entirely in this year's UK-wide election.

"The people of Scotland must be given a choice over their future and we write to urge you, as First Minister of Scotland, to continue fighting for that choice. We certainly will be."

Sturgeon is expected to issue a statement to Holyrood on what her administration's position is on a referendum later on Tuesday.