"This is an historic moment, decisive in the history of our glorious Iraqi people," Uloom

BAGHDAD, March 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council cast aside its deep communal and religious differences Monday, March 8, and signed the country's historic new interim constitution after delays which courted disaster.

The 25 member Council hailed the document as "enshrining basic freedoms and the protection of human rights" in Iraq after decades living under the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Headed by the Council's current president, Shiite scholar Mohammad Bahr Al-Uloom, the lawmakers stepped up one by one and put their signatures to the document as it lay on a wooden table, covered with green baize, using individual pens provided.

The ceremony, graced with singing children costumed in the tribal wear of Iraq 's rich ethnic tapestry, marked the end of two turbulent weeks as the country's Shiite and Sunni Muslims, Kurds, Turkmen and Christians made a pointed show of unity.

Over the course of heated negotiations concerning federalism, women's rights and the role of Islam, the politicians demonstrated Iraq had a long way to go before the nation overcomes the deep divisions among its citizens that gave rise to strongmen like Saddam Hussein.

‘Historic Moment’

In speeches before the signing, the Council members praised the constitution, with Uloom calling it a "historic moment, decisive in the history of our glorious Iraqi people."

"It is the first stone on which a new, free and democratic Iraq will be built, respectful of human rights," he said.

Uloom went to great lengths to stress the spirit of compromise in the document after his Shiite community pulled out of a signing ceremony originally scheduled for last Friday.

Iraq 's Kurds, whom other ethnic groups suspect of harboring a separatist agenda, also sounded a note of reconciliation.

"There is no doubt that this document will strengthen Iraqi unity in a way never seen before," said Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, whose community has warred with Iraq periodically since the country's inception.

"This is the first time that we Kurds feel that we are citizens of Iraq."

U.S. overseer Paul Bremer applauded from the audience after the nail-biting negotiations that almost collapsed last weekend.

"Not everybody got everything they wanted in this law, but that is the way democracy works," Bremer said when councilmen gave an informal approval before the official ceremony.

Monday's proceedings began with the recital of verses from the Koran, a song from five children dressed in traditional costumes and a poem recited by a small boy.

The constitution had originally been scheduled to be signed Wednesday but was postponed once following Tuesday's attacks on Shiite holy sites in Karbala and Baghdad , then again on Friday.

Insiders blamed the weekend delay on Iraq 's Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual guide for the country's Shiites, who objected to a clause in the document which he believed gave the Kurds undue power in the future.

The influential scholar's veto cancelled Friday's ceremony, in a stinging blow to the U.S. ambitions to present Iraq as a cornerstone of democracy in the Middle East .

But after a delegation of Shiite councilmen met with Sistani at his home in Najaf, he relented.

Asked why the Shiites had fallen into line, Hajim Al-Hassani, deputy to Mohsen Abdul Hamid, a Sunni of the Islamic Party, told AFP: "They realized there was no other choice but to go this way."

Comprising some 64 articles split into nine chapters, the basic law will take effect after the U.S.-led occupation hands back sovereignty to a caretaker Iraqi government on June 30.

It will take effect from July 1 and last until a permanent charter is drawn up by a new parliament directly elected by the people before the end of January 2005.

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