BAGHDAD - Iraqi leaders made contradictory statements early on Saturday on whether they had reached a consensus deal on a draft constitution.
A spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shi'ite, said negotiators had clinched a deal with backing from all main sectarian and ethnic groups.
"This isa historic day for Iraq," he told Reuters, saying minority Sunni delegates who had rejected the draft charter's provisions for regional autonomy had accepted a compromise.
But others involved in the negotiations, including the Sunni speaker of parliament Hajim al-Hassani, denied any such accord.
"We have not reached (an agreement). I'm not aware of any deal," he told Reuters. "If we had reached a deal we would announce it."
A spokesman for President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said he was unaware of any agreement, although there had been late-night talks about a possible compromise: "They were talking until very late tonight about a possible deal. It's not very clear," Kameran Qaradaghi told Reuters.
