Iraqis in late deal to ease bitterness before vote

BAGHDAD - Last-minute talks involving US diplomats persuaded one Sunni political party in Iraq to back a new constitution on Tuesday, just four days before it is put to a referendum, but others stood firm in a bitter sectarian feud.

On a day when suicide car bombers killed more than two dozen Iraqis, an offer by the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led ruling coalition to discuss amending the charter four months after an election in December was intended to soften Sunni opposition.

"It's a breakthrough to win Sunni endorsement for the constitution," one senior government source said.

He said that under the deal, to be unveiled on Wednesday by President Jalal Talabani and submitted to parliament, a mechanism would be built in to the constitution to provide for a renegotiation of certain elements in the first four months of the new legislature that will be elected on December 15.

Though it is too late to change the text distributed by the million to voters, officials have said throughout negotiations closely shepherded by US diplomats that any changes to the charter could be advertised to voters simply through television.

A senior source in the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of the more established groups among several claiming to speak for the once dominant Sunni Arab minority that largely boycotted January's election, said it would urge people to back the constitution.

"Some of our demands were met so the party has endorsed the constitution and is urging people to vote 'Yes'," he said.

With no accord, however, on just how the document might be amended next year, other Sunni leaders were unconvinced.

A key imponderable will therefore remain until next week -- how many ordinary Sunni voters can be persuaded to say "Yes".

SUNNI DEFIANCE

One secular Sunni leader, who was not at the talks, said the agreement would not change his attitude towards the referendum.

"The Islamic Party has gone to these talks. Anyone who goes is not representing the Sunnis," said Saleh al-Mutlak, spokesman for the Sunni movement, the National Dialogue.

He said he would continue to press for a "No" vote.

Other Sunni politicians have called for a boycott, which they say would deprive the constitution of legitimacy.

The say the federal autonomy offered in the draft could break Iraq into warring regions, with Sunnis caught between an oil-rich south, close to fellow Shi'ites in Iran, and a non-Arab Kurdish state encroaching on the northern oilfields.

Some leading Shi'ites have also voiced doubts about the draft. One of the most senior ayatollahs, Mohammed Mehdi al- Khalisi, called for rejection of the constitution on Tuesday because it had been drawn up under foreign occupation.

In public statements, Sunni insurgent groups fighting the US occupation and the Shi'ite-led government have vowed to stop people from voting and wreck the fledgling political system. Some rebels say the passing of the constitution in the face of Sunni objections will be a recruiting tool for them.

But for many, on all sides, the approval of the constitution on October 15 is almost a foregone conclusion, with few Sunnis saying they believe they can muster a blocking two-thirds majority against the charter in three of Iraq's 18 provinces.

DEBATE OPEN

As a result, political energies are already focussing on the parliament that will be elected for four years in December. Unlike in January, some expect many Sunnis to take part in the hope of influencing changes to the constitution.

Deputy parliamentary speaker Hussain Shahristani, a Shi'ite, said he expected Sunnis to vote in large numbers: "These discussions are mainly useful so that ... they can as of now study amendments and discuss them" for debate in the new National Assembly that will sit next year.

US diplomats have been working hard to bring the sides to a deal to stop the disaffected 20-per cent Sunni Arab minority, dominant under Saddam Hussein, turning more heavily to violence that has ravaged Iraq for two years and pinned down 140,000 American troops.

A car bomb blew up in a market in Tal Afar, killing at least 24 people and wounding 36, according to Saleh Kadoo, head doctor at the hospital in the town near the Syrian border where Iraqi and US troops launched an offensive on insurgents last month.

Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility.

A suicide car bomber attacked an Iraqi army convoy in a part of western Baghdad where insurgents are strong, killing five people and wounding 12, an Interior Ministry official said.

US President George W. Bush, who has mounted a diplomatic push to get the constitution passed, said he was sure Iraqis would make their voices heard on Saturday despite the bloodshed.

"I expect violence because there's a group of terrorists and killers who want to try to stop the advance of democracy in Iraq," Bush told NBC television. "I also expect people to vote, which is a remarkable achievement."

Iraqi officials preparing for the vote announced that the first ballots would be cast on Thursday as early polling is permitted at hospitals and detention centres.

- REUTERS