Iraq president hopes constitution ready Sunday
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-13 20:07

Most points of disagreement on the country's new constitution have been overcome and will be ready before the deadline, President Jalal Talabani said Saturday, reported AP.

"The meetings are still going on and we have gone forward," Talabani told reporters. "There is a meeting today and another meeting tomorrow and God willing we will finish the job tomorrow" - one day ahead of the deadline for parliament to approve the charter.

Talabani said the meetings now are concentrating on federalism in Shiite areas of central and southern Iraq, as well as the role of Islam in the state.

Sunni, Kurdish and Shiite political leaders have been meeting for days in an attempt to find solutions to major points of disagreements - most notably federalism - as well as Islam's role and the country's national identity.

Sunni Arabs have rejected federalism, fearing it could lead to dividing Iraq. The Sunnis have agreed to the continued existence of the Kurdish federated state in the north but were outraged by Shiite demands Thursday for their own self-governing region.

That appeared to confirm the Sunnis' worst fears that federalism would lead to a step-by-step disintegration of this country, established after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

Talabani, speaking to reporters after receiving Sunni religious leader Adnan al-Dulaimi, said none of the points of disagreements will be postponed but "there is an agreement to draft a constitution unanimously among all groups."

"We have reached agreements on many points but I am not authorized to announce them because we want to make the declaration all together," Talabani said. "We have reached agreement on many points and we can say that those remaining are few."

"God willing it will be ready tomorrow," the president said.