Kurds may drop secession demand

Talks on Iraq's new constitution have stalled over the role of Islam and the distribution of the country's oil wealth, negotiators said yesterday. The leadership of the country's Kurdish minority said it may drop its contentious demand for the right to secede.

Iraqis have until tomorrow night to complete work on the draft otherwise parliament must dissolve. The United States is putting intense pressure on negotiators to finish the charter, which Washington hopes will in time take the steam out of the insurgency.

Mullah Bakhtiyar, a senior official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the political party of Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, said all parties were showing flexibility in order to finish drafting the constitution.

"As for the self-determination for the Kurds, this issue did not enjoy the support of Sunnis or Shiites and we almost gave up this demand," Bakhtiyar said.

The Kurds have enjoyed de-facto independence since 1991. If they drop their demand to guarantee the right of self-determination a codeword for eventual secession that goes beyond mere federalism it would represent a major concession and would remove an obstacle to agreement on the charter by the deadline.

But a comprehensive compromise on a constitutional draft remained elusive, with the main outstanding dispute focusing on the role of Islam in the new state, pitting Kurds and secular groups against Islamist parties representing Iraq's Shiite majority.

"As for the issue of Islam's role, negotiations are still underway," Bakhtiyar said from the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

Yesterday, leaders of all factions continued a series of meetings in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

Saleh Al Mutlaq, a Sunni representative on the drafting committee, said the talks had bogged down after "deep differences" emerged.

He said Shiites were demanding that the new charter explicitly state that the decrees of their religious leadership were sacred something both the Sunnis and Kurds oppose.

Later in the day, however, a Shiite member of the drafting committee, Khalid Al Attiyah, said that the Kurds and Shiites had reached tentative agreement on most points, except for the distribution of oil wealth.

He added that the Shiite coalition had submitted a proposal on that issue, but it is still being discussed with the Kurds.

Al Attiyah also said Sunni negotiators were supposed to join a plenary meeting of the drafting committee Saturday evening.