IRAQ: Iraqi leaders agreed on an interim constitution yesterday after marathon talks. The discussions papered over ethnic and religious disputes that might have obstructed US plans to return power to Iraqis by June 30th.
The document will be officially signed tomorrow after the 25 members of the US-appointed Governing Council had missed a February 28th deadline to reach a deal because of divisions over the role of Islam, quotas for women in government and Kurdish demands for autonomy.
"This is a major achievement, only a day late, which I think is terrific," said the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell,
The US governor, Mr Paul Bremer, is expected to approve the document.
Officials said the law recognised Islam as Iraq's official religion, and specified it would be a source of legislation but not the primary source, as had been demanded by many in Iraq's 60 per cent Shia majority.
A senior official in the US-led administration said the compromise "strikes the right balance" between the Islamic identity of most Iraqis and the need for freedom of religion and speech, enshrined in a bill of rights in the document.
"The language on Islam and the state effectively says that this won't compromise individual rights or democratic principles."
The bill of rights would be virtually impossible to change or strike from the future constitution, said council member Mr Adnan Pachachi.
The document also backs a federal state, and recognises the northern zone Kurds have run since wresting it from Baghdad's control after the 1991 Gulf War, one element of a bid for autonomy that some Arabs fear will split Iraq.
Mr Rowsch Shways, who represented Kurdish Council member Mr Massoud Barzani in the talks, said it met Kurds' demands that their "peshmerga" militias remain as a Kurdistan national guard rather than as part of a national army.
The document also recognises Kurdish as an official language.
The document says elections for a transitional assembly should be held ideally by the end of 2004, or by January 31st, 2005, at the latest. That assembly will then work on a constitution, and plan full elections by the end of 2005.
Washington's initial plan was for elections by the end of 2005, but Iraq's most revered Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, demanded polls be held sooner.
Ayatollah Sistani initially wanted the government, which will take over on July 1st, to be elected, but softened his stance after the UN said it was impossible to organise polls so fast.
With US presidential elections nearing, President Bush's administration says it is determined to stick to plans to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30th.
However there are still no details of the government that will take over when Washington hands over power. A senior coalition official said talks would start "after a pause for breath".
Mr Hamid al-Bayati, of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the main Shia political groups, said the document ensured "there can't be any law passed that is not in keeping with Islam", and that it met Ayatollah Sistani's demands.
"This is what Ayatollah Sistani wanted to see in the interim constitution, so yes, what has been agreed is OK, although not everyone is fully and completely happy with what was in there."
Another controversial issue had been the representation of women. Council members said the document ensured 25 per cent of seats for women in a forthcoming legislative assembly.
Several Shia members of the council walked out last Friday when women invited to the session applauded the cancellation of a ruling that would have made divorce and inheritance subject to religious law.
Another contested point was the structure of the presidency. Council member Mr Samir Sumaidy told a news conference in Baghdad that it would consist of an executive president with two deputies. - (Reuters)