Constitution eludes Iraq; could bypass parliament

BAGHDAD, Iraq — For the committee drafting Iraq's new constitution, it's three strikes . . . and another trip to the plate.

The speaker of Iraq's parliament announced a one-day extension early today in talks on the 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.

Shiite leaders signaled they had lost patience with protracted negotiating and wanted to refer the draft approved by them and the Kurds last Monday to the electorate. With repeated missed deadlines and no sign of compromise, a process designed to bring the country's disparate ethnic, cultural and religious groups closer together appeared instead to be pushing them further apart.

A Shiite power play would undercut one of Washington's goals for the constitution: to invigorate a political process that will lure disaffected Sunni Arabs away from the Sunni-dominated insurgency so that U.S. and other foreign troops can begin to go home next year.

President Bush personally called one of the country's most powerful Shiite leaders, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, to try to broker a last-minute deal.

The Bush administration, however, expressed optimism that an agreement would be reached.

"I think if Iraqi leaders say that they need a few days more to complete a historic document that will lay a foundation for a new and free Iraq, I think that that is certainly understandable," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said after the delay was announced.

Parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani, a Sunni who was elected on the mostly Sunni ticket headed by former President Ghazi al-Yawer, said he also remained hopeful of a deal. "We found that time was late and we saw that the matters will need another day in order to reach results that please everyone," al-Hassani said on national television shortly after the midnight deadline. The Friday session was an attempt to give the Shiites time to respond to proposals tabled at a late-night meeting for which they did not show up.

Al-Hassani agreed that no parliamentary vote was required since the assembly fulfilled its legal obligations by accepting the Shiite and Kurdish-approved draft on Monday.

"If we will not be able to reach agreements in the end, this constitution is going to be presented to the Iraqis in an Oct. 15 referendum," al-Hassani said. "Legally we do not need the parliament to vote on the draft, but we need only a consensus so that all the Iraqis will say yes to the constitution."