THE framers of Iraq’s constitution appear likely to enshrine Islam as the main basis of law in the country - a stronger role than the US had hoped for and one some Iraqis fear will mean a more fundamentalist regime.

Weeping and beating their chests, hundreds of people inspected bodies at an Iraqi morgue today, trying to identify friends and family who died in the single deadliest attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

IRAQ’S main Shi’ite alliance, fresh from winning landmark elections, gathered yesterday to choose a candidate for prime minister and the allies it needs after failing to win an absolute majority.

Clergy-backed Shiites and independence-minded Kurds swept to victory in Iraq’s elections, according to final results released tonight.

Mariam Fam, Baghdad

A SUICIDE bomber killed at least 21 people and wounded nearly 30 at an Iraqi security forces recruitment centre in Baghdad yesterday in the deadliest insurgent attack since last month's historic election.

Iraqis embraced democracy in large numbers, standing in long lines to vote in defiance of mortar attacks, suicide bombers and boycott calls. Pushed in wheelchairs or carts if they could not walk, the elderly, the young and women in veils cast ballots in Iraq’s first free election in 50 years.

Leaders of the mostly Shiite Muslim ticket said today they have no intention of establishing an Iranian-style Islamic state in Iraq if they sweep next weekend’s national elections.

A SHI’ITE official yesterday announced a 228-candidate coalition backed by leading Shi’ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to contest Iraq’s January 30 elections.

A car bomb exploded in a busy Mosul market today and a mortar barrage struck near the Italian Embassy and an Iraqi National Guard base in Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding at least seven.

A SUICIDE car bomber ploughed into policemen waiting to collect their salary at a police station west of Ramadi yesterday, killing 12 people in the latest insurgent attack on Iraq’s beleaguered security forces.

The Iraqi kidnapping scourge continued unabated today with the abduction of two Egyptians in Baghdad.

IRAQ’S most revered Shi’ite leader yesterday persuaded a rebel cleric to accept a deal ending a three-week uprising in Najaf, after returning to the holy city amid bloody clashes that killed at least 74 people.

IRAQ'S US administrator began a 100-day countdown to Iraqi sovereignty yesterday by hailing progress since Saddam Hussein's removal, but fresh violence underlined the country's instability.

SUPPORTERS of Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said yesterday an assessment by UN officials that elections are not possible before June 30 could stir revolt against their American occupiers.

TENS of thousands of Shi’ite Muslims marched through Baghdad yesterday to demand early elections, as Iraq’s US governor asked the United Nations to back his political plans for Iraq.

A NEW American plan to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis will be changed after objections from the country’s most revered Shi’ite Muslim leader, the head of Iraq’s Governing Council said yesterday.