After 3rd deadlock, still no Iraq constitution

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 if no agreement is reached, the document would bypass parliament completely and be decided in an Oct. 15 referendum.\nHajim 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."\nEarlier, however, a Sunni Arab negotiator said Shiites didn't even show up for a late-night meeting.\nThe 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.\nHowever, 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.\nAlthough 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.\nThe 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.\nMonday was the second deadline which the legislature granted after the drafting committee failed to meet the Aug. 15 date set in the interim constitution.\nAl-Hassani said discussions continued Thursday and were attended by the Kurdish coalition, Iraqi List party of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Sunni Arabs. After those discussions, he said, suggestions were taken to the Shiite alliance, the largest bloc in the National Assembly.\nBut compromise did not appear likely.\nSome Shiites maintained there was no need for a parliamentary vote because the constitutional drafting committee had met its legal obligation by handing in a draft on Monday.\nAl-Hassani, a Sunni who was elected on the mostly Sunni ticket headed by former President Ghazi al-Yawer, agreed.\n"We legally received the draft. We are optimistic, although there are some differences. But if we will not be able to reach agreements in the end, this constitution is going to be presented for the Iraqis in a Oct. 15 referendum."\n"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," he said. "I still believe that the door is wide enough for reaching agreements."\nThe interim constitution, adopted when the U.S.-led coalition ran the country, states simply that parliament "shall write the draft of the permanent constitution" and that the document "shall be presented to the Iraqi people for approval in a general referendum by Oct. 15."\nHowever, lawmakers had agreed when the committee began its work to produce a "consensus" document acceptable to representatives of all of Iraq's cultural, religious and ethnic groups in a bid for national unity.\nA successful parliamentary vote would reaffirm that unity and send a strong signal to the Iraqi people that the wconstitution deserved their support.\nAlthough 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.