Iraqis consult clerics, try to salvage constitution

10.40am

NAJAF - A delegation from Iraq's Governing Council met aides to the country's top Shi'ite cleric overnight to try to salvage a deal on an interim constitution crucial to US plans to hand power back to Iraqis.

Governing Council members hoped to sign the constitution on Monday, but needed the approval of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a reclusive cleric who wields immense influence over the country's 60 per cent Shi'ite majority.

In Crawford, Texas, President Bush vowed to crush militants behind attacks this week that killed at least 181 people in Baghdad and Kerbala, and signalled a major push against chief suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Bush offered his first personal response to Tuesday's bomb attacks on Shi'ite worshippers.

"Laura and I and the American people were filled with grief and anger at these terrible attacks of murder," he said. "We will defeat the terrorists who seek to plunge Iraq into chaos and violence, and ... stand with the people of Iraq for as long as necessary to build a stable, peaceful and successful democracy."

The US Army said its troops had fired on a truck rigged with explosives in the "Sunni triangle" west of Baghdad on Saturday. The driver was killed and three US soldiers were wounded.

Britain's defence ministry said three Iraqi insurgents were shot dead on Friday in a firefight with British forces that left seven British soldiers wounded in southeast Iraq.

Bush, in citing progress toward handing sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30, made no mention of the delay of signing of an interim Iraqi constitution.

MONDAY SIGNING?

Objections from Sistani, 73, forced cancellation of plans to sign the accord last Friday, a setback for US efforts to return sovereignty to an Iraqi government on June 30.

"I hope and I pray that we will be able to sign this historic document on Monday morning," Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a leading Shi'ite member of the council, said in Najaf on Saturday after a day of talks with clerics and Sistani's aides.

He said the Shi'ite delegation from the council would stay in the holy city of Najaf to try to reach agreement before returning to Baghdad, possibly as late as Monday.

The council is due to convene in the capital on Monday to resolve the dispute and sign the constitution.

Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, a Shi'ite who is the current head of the council and also travelled to Najaf, said he was "sure that any objections can be resolved."

In Kuwait City, a senior US official expressed confidence on Saturday that on interim constitution would be signed.

"We believe that when we come back together on Monday ... we will be able to sign the agreement," said Richard Jones of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and ambassador to Kuwait.

The Governing Council missed a February 28 deadline to agree on the document because of divisions over the role of Islam, the representation of women and Kurdish demands for autonomy, but said last Monday it had reached a deal.

The signing ceremony, set for last Wednesday, was postponed after the bomb attacks on Shi'ites the previous day raised fears of a sectarian civil war.

INTERIM CONSTITUTION

Yesterday, a high-profile signing ceremony was abandoned when Shi'ite council members raised objections.

Sistani's interventions have repeatedly forced Washington to revise its plans for Iraq, leading it to give the United Nations a role in the political process and bring forward elections, now due to be held by end-January 2005.

The interim constitution will guide Iraq until an elected assembly agrees a permanent constitution and a referendum approves it. But Sistani, who wants Shi'ites to wield political influence commensurate with their majority status in Iraq, has objected to parts of the document.

Another problem is that the Shi'ites want a future presidential council to have five members -- three Shi'ites, one Sunni and one Kurd -- instead of the three-member body agreed.

In Amman on Saturday, the Red Cross said a letter by ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to his family had been delivered to his eldest daughter in Jordan.

"The message was personal...It had no political content," said Red Cross spokesman Muin Kassis in the Jordanian capital

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq