The head of the panel drawing up Iraq’s new constitution announced on yesterday that a draft of the document would be ready by a mid-August deadline, easing fears that deep divisions could set back the political process. “We can get it completed by August 15,” Humam Hammoudi, head of the 71-member drafting committee, told parliament. He said there were still five or six points of difference among the drafters but was hopeful they would be resolved. Faced with a host of explosive issues such as federalism and the role of religion in the state, the team drawing up the constitution considered in talks on Sunday taking more time to write the document.

But the panel has been under intense US pressure to submit a draft on time. The Iraqi government and their American backers see the constitution as a key part of any democratic process and hope it can help defuse the two-year-old insurgency.

Dampening down the insurgency would in turn increase the likelihood of US forces withdrawing from Iraq sooner. Hammoudi said only one chapter of the document remained to be written and he expected it would be completed in the next 10 days or so. “We will work day and night to finish it on time. Even our Sunni brothers insist on finishing it on time,” he said.

The speaker of parliament confirmed that no formal request for an extension to the deadline had been made. The schedule calls for the draft constitution to be written by Aug. 15, put to a referendum by Oct. 15 and elections for a new government to be held under the charter by Dec 15. According to Iraq’s interim constitution, drawn up last year with the help of US and British diplomats, an extension of six months can be requested.

Although some constitution panel members warned that rushing through the document could backfire in a country with many incendiary political and sectarian divisions, others insisted on meeting the deadline.

<B>Politics vs insurgency</B>

Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government, which took power in January elections, has embarked on a strategy of trying to draw Arab Sunnis, who are leading the insurgency, into peaceful politics in a bid to pacify the country. Insurgents, who have killed thousands of people with roadside bombs and assassinations, have warned Sunni Arabs against joining politics. One Sunni Arab member of the constitution drafting team was assassinated last month, prompting other Sunnis on the panel to stage a six-day boycott.

Although Iraq’s government and its US backers are likely to hail meeting the constitutional deadline as a victory for democracy, writers of the document may put aside the most volatile issues. The Kurds are pushing for a federal structure that gives them autonomy in the north, where they have enjoyed a de facto state since 1991. Some secular Shi’ites want autonomy in the south while Arab Sunnis, who were dominant under Saddam Hussein, favour a highly centralised government with tight control over oil reserves in the north and south.

Religious Shi’ite leaders, many of whom were exiles in Iran during Saddam’s rule, say that Islam should be the basis of laws and every sect should enjoy equal rights. Arab Sunnis fear the country will be modelled after Shi’ite Iran, and women’s groups complain that the new constitution will give them only limited rights. Even if the constitution-writing process goes smoothly, there are no guarantees the insurgency will ease.

Violence has raged since January elections and US-trained Iraqi forces still cannot quell a campaign of suicide bombings, assassinations and kidnappings. Gunmen killed a brigadier in the Iraqi security forces on Monday, opening fire on his car as he crossed a Baghdad bridge, an interior ministry source said. A car bomb at an Iraqi police checkpoint south of Baghdad killed seven people and wounded 12 on Sunday. Gunmen ambushed a convoy from Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi’s political party, killing one security guard and wounding three, an aide to Chalabi said.

<B>Waleed IBRAHIM

Mussab AL-KHAIRALLA</B>