Shi'ite leaders confer with cleric over constitution

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From combined dispatches

NAJAF, Iraq -- Shi'ite members of the Iraqi Governing Council conferred with the country's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, yesterday to resolve a dispute that has held up the signing of an interim constitution.

Governing Council members hope to sign the constitution tomorrow, but need the approval of Ayatollah al-Sistani, 73, a reclusive cleric who wields immense influence over the country's 60 percent Shi'ite majority.

Last-minute objections from the ayatollah -- mainly over the presidency and a plan for Kurdish autonomy -- forced the cancellation of the constitution signing ceremony Friday.

"I hope and I pray that we will be able to sign this historic document on Monday morning," Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a leading Shi'ite member of the council, told Reuters news agency in Najaf yesterday after a day of talks with clerics and the ayatollah's aides.

He said the Shi'ite delegation from the council would stay in the holy city until tomorrow morning if necessary to try to reach an agreement before returning to Baghdad. The council is due to convene in the Iraqi capital at 10 a.m. tomorrow to resolve the dispute and sign the constitution.

Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum, a Shi'ite who is the current head of the council, said he was "sure that any objections can be resolved."

Ayatollah al-Sistani's son, Mohammed, shuttled back and forth between his father's home and Mr. Bahr al-Ulloum's office in Najaf, where the Shi'ite council members gathered yesterday.

With negotiations reopened, a Kurdish official said his side would not consent to changing the clause, which was agreed to by the entire council when it approved the constitution last Monday after several days of intense debate.