"We think Sistani does not want to provoke a crisis in the country, " said Rubaei (AFP)

AN-NAJAF, Iraq, March 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraq’s interim constitution will be signed Monday, March 7, following a deal with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in the country, a member of the U.S.-sanctioned interim Governing Council said Sunday.

"You will hear very good news, very soon, the signing will take place Monday, " Muwaffaq al-Rubaei told reporters two days after the Shiites withdrew their endorsement of the document and did not show up for the signing ceremony, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"An agreement has been reached and the signature will take place in any event on Monday, " he added, without specifying the exact nature of the accord, or whether it had been approved by other parties on the council.

The Council's 25 members would meet at 10:00 am at their headquarters in Baghdad before setting the time for a signing ceremony later in the day, said the council's spokesman Hamid Kifaieh.

Rajaa Habib al-Khuzai, a Shiite councilor, was also confident of a signing on Monday.

"I received a phone call an hour ago from An-Najaf (where Sistani lives) and was told that the agreement has been done and everyone accepts," she said.

Iraqi Shiite leaders had worked since Saturday, March 6, to resolve disputes over certain clauses of the temporary constitution.

Rubaie and Ahmad Chalabi, another council member, and a representative of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), visited Sistani for 25 minutes Sunday.

"We think Sistani does not want to provoke a crisis in the country but, to the contrary, wishes to facilitate our work to make the political process succeed and without any interruption, " he said.

Optimism

The Council's current president, Mohammed Bahr al-Uloom, had voiced optimism Saturday that the body would meet Monday's new deadline to reach a deal.

"We are headed toward an agreement on the unresolved issues. The signing of the provisional constitution must happen Monday at 2:00 pm (1100 GMT), " he said after talks with Sistani through intermediaries.

The Shiites retracted their endorsement of the interim code after objections to a clause in the basic law that gave what they felt to be unfair power to the Kurdish minority.

Sistani raised alarm over a provision allowing Kurds to veto a permanent constitution, to be drafted next year.

The Shiites also vocalized concern about Kurdish becoming an official state language, a source close to the negotiations told AFP.

Another point of dispute is the make-up of the presidency, reported the BBC News Online.

The draft agreement provides for a single president with two deputies, while the Shiites have been demanding a five-person presidency rotating between three Shiites, a Kurd and a Sunni, it added.

The undoing of what appeared to be a done deal was a new twist that angered other leaders in a week marked by day and night political wrangling.

The basic law had been hailed by council members and U.S. administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer as one of the most progressive in the Middle East, laying the foundations for direct elections before the end of January 2005.

It provides for a federal state with two official languages, where Islam will be a source of legislation but not the basis for it.