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Baghdad, Iraq, 3
May 2006 - Iraq's parliament is meeting for its
first full legislative session since it was elected
in December.
Sunni deputies are driving efforts to set up a
committee to amend the constitution, which they say
would perpetuate sectarianism in the country.
Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Nouri Maliki, a Shia,
is in the process of selecting a new cabinet.
But Shia officials say Sunni lawmakers are insisting
on key posts, creating possible new stumbling
blocks.
Those posts include deputy prime minister and a
major ministry, such as finance or education,
reports the Associated Press news agency.
Shia politician Bassem Sharif told AP that the
Sunnis had refused a lesser ministry. He said talks
would continue on Wednesday.
According to the constitution, the prime minister
has 30 days from the date of his appointment - in Mr
Maliki's case, 22 April - to form the new cabinet.
Should he fail, the constitution dictates that
another prime minister be selected.
Constitution concern
Parliamentary speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani opened
Wednesday's first full legislative session,
announcing that 154 of the 275 members were present.
On the parliamentary agenda was the formation of a
committee to recommend changes to Iraq's
constitution, an initiative spearheaded by Sunni
lawmakers.
"We want to change the constitution," Zhafer al-Ani,
a spokesman for the Sunni-led National Concord Front
parliamentary bloc, told AFP news agency.
"The present constitution smells of sectarianism and
we are trying to change it so it can be a national
constitution representing all Iraqis."
However, AP quoted Shia officials as saying they
wanted to delay formation of the committee to
examine the constitution until after the new cabinet
has been selected.
Sunnis fear the constitution could lead to the
break-up of Iraq.
Another major concern is the sharing of the
country's oil wealth - which is concentrated in the
Kurdish north and Shia-dominated south.
The draft of Iraq's constitution took painstaking
weeks to hammer out before it was approved by Iraqi
voters in a referendum in October 2005.
But Mr Ani said he and his allies had only requested
that Sunnis vote in the referendum "as the draft had
a provision to amend the charter and we now want to
do that".
"The main issue is federalism... it is a red line
for us... especially in the south," he said.
"We have hard work ahead of us to bring people
together on these issues," he added.
BBC
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