Iraqis miss third deadline as talks on draft constitution deadlock, give themselves one-day extension

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The speaker of Iraq's Parliament announced a one-day extension early Friday in talks on Iraq's new constitution — a fourth attempt to win Sunni Arab approval. But he said that if no agreement is reached, the document would bypass parliament completely and be decided in an Oct. 15 referendum.

Hajim al-Hassani, speaking minutes after the midnight deadline, said after meeting for three days, "we found that time was late and we saw that the matters will need another day in order to reach results that please everyone."

Earlier, however, a Sunni Arab negotiator said Shiites didn't even show up for a late-night meeting.

The United States hopes the constitution will invigorate a political process that will — in time — lure disaffected Sunni Arabs away from the Sunni-dominated insurgency so that American and other foreign troops can begin to go home next year.

However, the perception that the Shiites and Kurds rammed through a document unacceptable to the Sunnis could produce a backlash among Sunni Arabs and sharpen religious and ethnic tensions.

Although the constitution requires only a simple majority in the referendum, if two-thirds of the voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces vote against it, the charter will be defeated. Sunni Arabs are about 20 percent of the national population but form the majority in at least four provinces.

The deadlock on the constitution came as Shiite leaders called for an end to fighting between rival Shiite groups, and police found the bodies of 36 men, bound and shot in the head, near the Iranian border — apparent victims of Iraq's worsening communal tension.

The violence was a clear sign of the need for a stable, constitutional government in Iraq — something all sides agree on. But a formula that pleases Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and other groups has proven elusive.

Shiites and Kurds had accepted a draft on Monday but Sunni Arabs opposed it, and al-Hassani had granted three more days to try to bring the Sunnis on board.

Monday was the second deadline which the legislature granted after the drafting committee failed to meet the Aug. 15 date set in the interim constitution.

The parliament speaker said that discussions in the past three days were "very good in which points of views were exchanged." He said they discussed federalism, references to Saddam Hussein's Baath party and the constitution's introduction.