"If (our list of candidates) is blocked, we will suspend our participation," Dulaimi said.

Additional Reporting By Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, June 8, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraq's Sunni leaders stressed that Sunni Arabs should be represented by least 25 people in the 55-member committee tasked with writing the constitution, as an international think-tank called for delaying the drafting process to ensure support from all Iraqis.

"The number of our representatives must be 25 so that we have fair rights with the current constitutional committee," read a resolution agreed by 150 Sunni delegates during a conference held Wednesday, June 8.

They threatened to suspend their participating in the writing of the new constitution if their demand was rejected by the 275-member National Assembly.

"The constitution cannot be drafted without the participation of all Iraqis. Any constitution written without that would not be legitimate," said resolution.

"The concerned parties bear the responsibility of not giving us the chance to participate."

The meeting was held without the country's leading Sunni religious authority, the Association of Muslim Scholars.

Iraq’s Sunnis have recently formed an alliance of religious, political and social groups to streamline their political participation and unify the ranks of all Sunnis, whether Arabs, Turkomans or Kurds.

Main Sunni powers, along with other political groups, shunned the January general elections election, leaving Shiites and Kurds dominating the parliament.

Sunnis running as independents or members of other parties won only 17 seats in the parliament.

Candidates

The Sunni delegates said a 40-name list would be put forward to the National Assembly and the United Nations to choose 25 names to take part in the constitution-drafting process.

"Tomorrow we will propose 40 names from which we would like to see 25 selected and in case of disagreement we will propose a compromise," said Adnan Dulaimi, chairman of the Sunni Waqfs body who presided over the meeting.

"If (our list) is blocked, we will suspend our participation," threatened the Sunni scholar.

Anti-occupation Sunni powers said in February they might use the veto weapon if they were marginalized in drafting the constitution by the Shiites and the Kurds.

Under rules agreed last year, an October referendum to ratify that draft will fail if two-thirds of the voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces give it the thumbs-down.

If it is approved, a new general election will be held by the end of the year.

Islam

The Sunni delegates also called for including Islam in the constitution as Iraq's official religion.

"Islam must be the state religion and the constitution must not include anything that goes against Islam," Dulaimi said.

It also pressed for maintaining the unity of the Iraqi people and the country's territorial integrity.

The meeting further called for enshrining equal rights to religious and ethnic minorities and mechanisms to protect them.

Delay Call

The ICG said without broad consultation, Iraqis will believe the constitution "is of foreign authorship".

In a related development, a leading international think-tank stressed Wednesday that Iraq should delay drafting the constitution to ensure that the crucial document has the support of all the war-torn country's disparate groups, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Iraqis face a dilemma: rush the constitutional process and meet the current deadline of August 15 ... or encourage a process that is inclusive, transparent and participatory in an effort to increase popular buy-in of the final product," the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report.

The conflict-resolution outfit said the decision would be a difficult one but that a document "based on popular input and consensus" may be the best way to stabilize the country.

The constitution is due to be put to a referendum by October 15 but the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), under which Iraq is currently run, allows a one-off six-month delay to be announced by August 1.

The Brussels-based ICG said of particular importance was bringing marginalized Sunnis into the process.

It further said that its main concern was drawing the population at large into the drafting process.

"Not only to secure a yes vote in the referendum but also to forge a national consensus and thereby marshal support for the new political order as a whole."

The group warned that without broad consultation, many Iraqis will believe the constitution "is of foreign authorship", adding that the TAL have been "pulled out of a hat" and signed in March 2004 "without even the merest hint of public input".

American and British officials have repeatedly called for the drafting process to stick to its original timetable.

"To negotiate a new social contract in a deeply traumatized and fractured society within less than seven months is hard enough; to do so in one-third that time is virtually impossible".

The international group also slammed the "inherent contradiction in the international call for a constitutional process that is inclusive, participatory and transparent and insistence on the 15 August deadline".