Iraqi negotiators reach pact on charter

BAGHDAD -- Four days before Iraqis are to vote on their country's proposed constitution, Shi'ite, Sunni Arab, and Kurdish power brokers reached a breakthrough late yesterday that revived dying hopes of winning Sunni support for the charter and defusing the Sunni-led insurgency by political means, Iraqi political leaders said.

Before the deal was announced, insurgents staged another in a string of major attacks in the days leading up to Saturday's constitutional referendum. Across Iraq yesterday, car bombings killed at least 36 civilians and police officers, with the deadliest in the northern city of Tal Afar, where a suicide attacker drove an explosives-laden car into a market, killing 30 people, all civilians, police said.

The tentative accord, which would allow the constitution to be changed early next year, was reached through closed-door deals made largely by political party chiefs rather than members of Iraq's constitution committee. A parliamentary leader questioned whether enough time was left for the National Assembly to give it legal approval before the referendum.

But after weeks of stalemate over a draft constitution that largely shut out the demands of Iraq's disempowered Sunni Arab minority and raised fears of even greater sectarian and insurgent violence, some Sunni negotiators accepted yesterday's changes with relief.

''With the changes, I will give my full support to the constitution," said Mishan Jabouri, a Sunni Arab who was involved in negotiations. An opponent of the previous draft, Jabouri earlier had said he stayed in talks only at the coaxing of Middle Eastern diplomats.

''Before now, I felt like I am losing. We are losing our power, we are losing our country, and I am like a foreigner living here," Jabouri said. ''Now everything has changed. This constitution, I think any Arab Sunni can support it."

''I believe the key part of the Sunni community will come on board," said another senior Iraqi official close to the talks. ''We have come very far at the very last minute."

The deal was achieved largely because of what US officials have called ''tweaking" encouraged by US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. The diplomat has pushed for unceasing negotiations to win Sunni approval since late August, when Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders of Iraq's transitional government approved a draft over Sunni objections.

The major concession from yesterday's talks was the Shi'ites' and Kurds' agreement that a committee be created early next year to consider amendments to the constitution, if voters approve it Saturday, said Ali Debagh, a top Shi'ite official involved in the talks. Any changes recommended by the committee would have to be ratified with a two-thirds' vote of parliament and a new national referendum, Debagh said.

The compromise appealed to the Sunni Arabs, observers said, because the changes would be put before a new parliament, to be elected Dec. 15. Sunnis have had comparatively little say in the existing parliament because they largely stayed away from the polls when the body was elected in January. Because the Sunni Arabs heeded insurgents' threats and their own leaders' calls for a boycott, Shi'ites captured a majority of seats and allied themselves with ethnic Kurds to form a strong governing coalition.

But despite continued warnings by insurgents, Sunni Arabs have vowed to vote in the referendum and in the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, and they expect to have greater representation in the next parliament. During the registration period for Saturday's vote, hundreds of thousands signed up in the heavily Sunni west.

Sunni negotiators say they hope they can influence the creation of the federal system if they have more members in the next parliament. Faction leaders said they would present the deal to parliament this afternoon. Hussein Shahristani, a Shi'ite who is deputy speaker of parliament, said he doubted lawmakers could muster the quorum needed to approve a final version of the draft constitution incorporating yesterday's compromises.

With a four-day national curfew starting tomorrow and a holiday called for on the day of the vote, lawmakers already have begun leaving Baghdad, Shahristani said. ''I cannot see how it is possible for the members to come back to Baghdad," he said. In addition, copies of the draft constitution went to press weeks ago and are being distributed. Negotiators said yesterday that they would rely on TV, radio, and newspapers to give Iraqis the gist of the changes in the charter.