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BAGHDAD 28.Aug.(Reuters) - Iraq's president was
set to announce a final draft on Sunday of a
constitution that has seen weeks of wrangling
between the divided country's main ethnic and
religious groups, government sources said.
President Jalal Talabani's office said a celebration
would be held at his office at 3.30 pm (1130 GMT)
"on the occasion of finishing drafting the
constitution".
"They have agreed to present the draft and it will
be announced shortly by the presidential office.
There is no legal requirement for the National
Assembly to convene," a government source told
Reuters.
Sources in the president's office said there was a
"strong possibility" that an agreement on a draft
that will go to a referendum had been reached.
But it remained unclear whether this text had met
with approval from Sunni Arabs who had earlier
complained. The office of Parliament Speaker Hajem
al-Hassani said meetings were continuing.
Government spokesman Laith Kubba said changes had
been made in the draft constitution to postpone
federalism for six months after a new assembly is
formed following December elections.
"These were the revisions. I'm not very sure all of
them were taken on board exactly as demanded ... But
the most important item was to postpone federalising
the country (until) six months after the new
assembly in December is formed."
Sunnis, whose community is the seat of the
insurgency, remain fiercely opposed to a text
proposed by Shi'ites and Kurds after negotiations in
which the United States has been deeply involved to
try to reach a compromise.
"Our position remains the same and in principle
nothing has changed. We met with the American
ambassador yesterday and he threatened us but his
threats will not work," said a Sunni negotiator, who
asked not to be named.
"This constitution was cooked up in an American
kitchen not an Iraqi one. We stand by our position."
The Sunni stance apparently heralds a new clash over
the constitution in a referendum to be held by
October 15.
U.S. PRESSURE
Forcing the pace as he has done for the past month
to keep Iraqi leaders to a U.S.-sponsored timetable,
Washington's envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was a ubiquitous
presence in the meeting rooms of Baghdad's fortified
Green Zone on Saturday. Echoing the speaker of
parliament, he spoke of an "agreement in principle".
The United States, which is eager to show that
democracy can succeed in Iraq after it toppled
Saddam Hussein, has been mediating during weeks of
political haggling.
American embassy officials were not immediately
available to comment on the accusation that
Khalilzad threatened Sunni officials in Saturday's
talks.
Sunnis, who lost influence with the fall of Saddam,
largely shunned a January election, giving it little
voice in the present interim parliament. But it is
mobilising in strength for the referendum and an
election due in December.
An official of the Independent Electoral Commission
of Iraq said a date for the popular vote had not yet
been set but that it was likely to take place close
to a deadline of October 15.
Sunnis say they will not budge on federalism,
fearing it would deprive them of oil resources in
regions near the Kurdish north and Shi'ite south
which hold the world's third-largest oil reserves.
They also want to remove any clauses in the draft
that bar members of Saddam's former Baath party from
public life, arguing that not all of them have blood
on their hands.
Although the Sunnis are a minority, they comprise a
majority in three of Iraq's 18 provinces and
mustering up two thirds of the vote there would
allow them to block the charter under regulations in
an interim constitution.
State television and radio have broadcast debates on
the text and the government has been promoting it
with an advertising campaign, hoping to raise the
awareness of a public worn down by daily guerrilla
bombings and poor services.
The Iraqi government and U.S. strategy for
stabilising Iraq seeks to lure Sunnis into peaceful
politics and undermine the insurgency, as well as to
improve Iraqi security forces.
But the tough constitution talks have deepened
divisions in Iraq, where violence has raised fears
of sectarian civil war.
Reuters
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