Coalition official- Iraqis will not draft interim constitution

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's U.S.-picked leaders failed to meet a Saturday deadline for adopting an interim constitution but were expected to find compromise soon on contentious issues including the role of Islamic law and the status of women.

Still, the delay signaled the deep and persistent divisions over how to distribute power among the country's ethnic and religious factions and to balance Islam and secularism. It also marked the latest glitch in U.S. plans to hand sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.

Earlier Saturday, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, met with members of the Governing Council in an attempt to overcome their differences. An official in the U.S.-led coalition, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a charter could be completed today.

At issue are efforts by conservatives to enshrine Islam as the main source of law in Iraq, Kurdish demands for that they not lose their self-rule federal region and Shiite attempts to dominate the new government's presidency.

Ensnared in mistrust

Shiite leaders and members of the council have rejected the U.S. formula for picking the government due to start ruling in July, but no one has been able to agree on an alternative -- likely requiring the United Nations to step in to help.

The council, hand-picked by the United States to reflect the diversity of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups, has been ensnared in those groups' mutual mistrusts and clashing ambitions, despite months of debate on many of the same central issues.

Mahmoud Othman, a Sunni Muslim Kurd on the council, said meeting the Feb. 28 deadline -- set by the Americans and agreed to by the council -- was less important than resolving issues now, rather than leaving them unclear.

"The Iraqi people have been waiting for a law for 45 years. If it takes a few more days so what? It's got to be finished," he said.

The document is to remain in effect until a permanent charter is adopted next year. But all sides are pushing to get their interests met in the interim constitution, which will likely be a basis for the permanent version.

Balancing Islam, democracy

The issue of Islam's role has been particularly sensitive.

Bremer, who must approve the final document, has hinted he would veto any text enshrining Islam as the main basis of Iraqi law. Liberal politicians see the provision as a possible first step to imposing Islamic sharia law, and many women fear their rights would be restricted.

U.S. officials and some on the 25-member council support making Islam only one of many sources of law.

"I think this is as far as we can go," Othman said. "We want it to be a democratic state. We don't want an Islamic state, we want a state that respects religion. ... It should be a balanced formula."

Raja Habib al-Khuzaai, a Shiite woman on the council who has opposed the conservatives' phrasing, said there appeared to be "flexibility" on the issue. But she said members were still divided over a provision that would set aside 40 percent of seats in a future government for women.

In a sign of the tensions, eight of the council's 13 Shiite members stormed out of a meeting on the constitution late Friday after a vote that canceled a controversial resolution that would have made Islamic law the basis for issues like divorce and inheritance.

Also unresolved are Kurdish demands for self-rule powers under a federal system -- including control over their region's oil and natural resources and the right to maintain their militias as a distinct armed force.

With that debate still unresolved, the Kurdish demands have brought similar calls from Shiites.

A leading Shiite party on the council, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, demands that all regions of the country should get whatever rights the Kurds ultimately receive, said Hamed al-Bayati, a senior official in the group.

"We are saying that the rest of the Iraqi people should have the same rights, whether in the north, the west or the south," he said.

The Supreme Council maintains its own armed militia, the Badr Brigades, mainly in southern cities. The south, where most of Iraq's Shiite majority is centered, also holds large oil reserves.

Sunni Muslims have expressed deep concerns over what they see as a Shiite drive to dominate the new government. Shiites were harshly repressed under Saddam Hussein's regime and now see the chance to rule.

The Supreme Council is also pressing for the presidency under the new constitution to reflect the Shiite majority in the country.

One proposal before the council would have a presidency that rotates between a Shiite, a Sunni and a Kurd. But al-Bayati said the presidency should either have one president, a Shiite, with a Sunni and a Kurd deputy or should rotate among five people -- three Shiites, a Kurd and a Sunni.

Othman said that Shiites on the council were using their connections with Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, to press their demands, claiming that they have his support.

"I think this will make things more complicated," he said.