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Iraqi constitution delayed again

The head of Iraq's constitutional drafting committee said on yesterday that he did not think the three additional days lawmakers said are needed for the three main factions to agree on the draft charter would be sufficient to achieve a breakthrough.

The draft was submitted to parliament just minutes before the expiry of the midnight deadline on Monday by the bloc composed of Kurds and Shiite Arabs.

But lawmakers quickly deferred a vote on it because of the fierce Sunni Arab resistance, and parliamentary speaker Hajim al-Hassani said it would take another three days to iron out "pending differences."

No date was set for another parliament session and a vote on the proposal, after which it will be put to the voters to ratify in a referendum by Oct. 15.

The 15 Sunni members of the drafting committee issued a statement early on Tuesday saying they had rejected the proposal because the government and the committee did not abide by an agreement for consensus. They said agreement on the document was still far off.

Despite the failure to finalize the proposal for a second time in two weeks, government spokesman Laith Kubba put a positive spin on proceedings, saying they demonstrated the democratic nature of the drafting process.

"After a long discussion, this is the best we could get. The Iraqi people can accept or reject this new constitution. This is a new experiment." Laith Kubba told journalists yesterday.

"The process should be completed," he said.

But Saleh al-Mutlaq, one of four top Sunni negotiators, said more than 20 issues still divide the sides.

"This constitution will divide the country," al-Mutlaq said after the midnight session.

US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said that the major issues blocking a deal were federalism, purging the Baath Party and the issue of whether some of the officers of the assembly should be elected by a simple or two-thirds majority.

Sunnis -- who dominated Iraqi society under Saddam -- oppose decentralization, fearing it would cut them out of the country's oil wealth and leave them powerless.

Kurds demand federalism to protect their self-rule in three northern provinces.

The Sunnis have accepted Kurdish self-rule but oppose any extension of federalism as proposed by the biggest Shiite party, fearing that would also lead to the disintegration of Iraq.

Repeated delays are a deep embarrassment for the Bush administration. Washington had applied enormous pressure on the Iraqis to meet the original Aug. 15 deadline, but parliament instead had to grant a week's extension, which they again failed to meet.

Humam Hammoudi, head of the constitutional drafting committee, told reporters yesterday that he did not expect three days to be sufficient to solve all the outstanding issues.

But if no compromise can be reached on the Sunni demands, "we will turn it to the Iraqi people to say yes or no," he said.

Hammoudi said a federal structure was critical to maintaining democracy in Iraq.

"With all this oil income the central government will turn into, whether we like it or not, a dictatorship," he said.

Sunni leaders have threatened to order their followers to vote "no" in the October referendum on the new constitution unless their objections are addressed.
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