Monday, August 29 2005 12:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: President Jalal Talabani said yesterday (August 29, 2005) Iraq's draft constitution is ready to be put to an October 15 referendum despite the objections of Sunni Arabs which were downplayed by US President George W Bush.

"The draft constitution is ready and will be presented to the Iraqi people, who are known for their intelligence, to give their verdict on October 15," Talabani told reporters at a ceremony to mark the end of the drafting process.

"There are objections from our Sunni Arab brothers... but nobody can claim that they represent the whole spectrum of Sunni Arabs," said the president, who is a Kurd. "If the nation rejects it, we will write another one."

Bush today hailed the draft constitution, calling it "an inspiration" for supporters of democracy.

"This is a document of which the Iraqis, and the rest of the world, can be proud," Bush told reporters from his Texas ranch.

"Of course there's disagreement. We're watching a political process unfold, a process that's encouraged debate and compromise," said Bush, who personally urged a leading Shiite last week to make more concessions to the Sunnis.

"We recognise that there is a split amongst Sunnis in Iraq," he said. "Some Sunnis expressed reservations about provisions of the constitution. That's their right as free individuals living in a free society.

"It is important that all Iraqis engage in the constitutional process by debating the merits of this important document and making an informed decision on October 15," the president said from his ranch.

US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad called the charter "the most progressive document of the Muslim world" and said it reunited Kurdish northern Iraq, which had been running its own affairs since the country's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War with Kuwait, with the rest of the country.

He also said the charter protected women's rights.

Negotiators agreed to 11th-hour changes in the text in a bid to win endorsement from the alienated former Sunni Arab elite whose community has driven the anti-US insurgency.

But the changes failed to bring the Sunnis on board.

Shiite negotiator Khudair al-Khozai acknowledged that just three of the 15 Sunni Arab members had turned up for the final meeting of the drafting committee.

He said the late concessions made to the Sunnis had been "minor and do not affect the core" of the text.

The principal stumbling block had been Shiite demands for an autonomous region in Shiite-majority areas of the centre and south like that of the Kurds in the north.

Sunnis opposed the demand, fearing they would lose out in the distribution of Iraq's huge oil revenues, given that the reserves lie almost entirely in the Kurdish north or Shiite south.

Shiite negotiators said they had moderated their position on an autonomous region, insisting only on the principle of federalism and leaving it to a new parliament to work out the details after elections due by mid-December.

The final draft said the political system of Iraq would be "republican, parliamentary, democratic and federal", and referred to Islam as "a main source of legislation".