Sunnis reject new Iraqi constitution

IRAQI negotiators finished the country's new constitution yesterday without the endorsement of Sunni Arabs who helped prepare it, dealing a blow to the Bush administration.

It has set the stage for a bitter campaign leading up to an October referendum.

The 15 members of the Sunni panel said they rejected the document because of disagreements over such issues as federalism, Iraq's identity and references to Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated Ba'ath Party.

Sunni Arab negotiators said they had asked the United Nations and Arab League to intervene.

The document, which included last-minute changes aimed at easing Sunni concerns, was read to lawmakers. It was not put to a vote in the assembly, where the Shi'ite-Kurdish bloc has an overwhelming majority.

"The constitution is left to our people to approve or reject it," President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said. "I hope that our people will accept it despite some flaws."

Mr Talabani acknowledged that the Sunni Arabs had objections to the draft "but everybody had reservations. This is part of democracy... If the people do not approve it, we will draft another constitution."

Hajim al-Hassani, the Sunni Arab speaker of the legislature, was not present, but deputy speaker Hussain al-Shahristani, a Shi'ite, told reporters the speaker agreed with all parts of the draft and had "other appointments." Mr al-Hassani played a major role in the final negotiations, which now goes to the Iraqi people in an October 15 referendum.

Technically, no vote was required by parliament. At one time, officials wanted a vote as an affirmation of unity between the Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds, but that idea was shelved because of Sunni objections to the document and repeated delays in finalising the draft.

Sheik Humam Hammoudi, chairman of the drafting committee, said the constitution "guarantees freedoms and equalises between everyone, women and men and different ethnic groups and respects the ideologies of this nation and the religion of this society."

However, the 15-member Sunni negotiating team rejected the document, calling it "illegitimate".

"We call upon the Arab League, the United Nations and international organisations to intervene so that this document is not passed and so that the clear defect in it is corrected," said the statement read by Abdul-Nasser al-Janabi.

A top Sunni negotiator, Saleh al-Mutlaq, told Alhurra Television that all opponents of the constitution will hold a conference to decide their next move.

After two months of talks, negotiators for the Shiite-Kurd bloc and the Sunnis remained divided over such fundamental issues as:

* Whether Iraq should be a federal state or decentralised by giving power to provincial authorities.

* How the country's oil wealth will be divided.

* Whether Ba'ath Party members should be purged from government.

* Whether Iraq will be considered an Arab or Islamic nation.