Sandstorm forces delay in Iraq charter talks

A sandstorm on Monday forced Iraqi leaders to delay talks aimed at breaking a deadlock over drafting the constitution to meet an Aug. 15 deadline for the document they hope will help defuse a raging insurgency.

A second day of unrest in the southern Shiite city of Samawa added to the pressure on the government. Guerrillas roamed the streets and attacked police with rockets as anger at poor public services erupted into violent protests Sunday.

President Jalal Talabani had been scheduled to host a second day of talks between Iraqi leaders from across the sectarian and ethnic divide hoping to resolve volatile issues such as regional autonomy and control of oil revenues.

A government statement said poor weather had forced a delay in further talks, launched on Sunday evening, until today.

The Shiite-led interim government and its U.S. sponsors say pressing on with the political process that began with an election in January will defuse the insurgency among the Sunni Arab minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Talabani, a former Kurdish guerrilla leader, was optimistic about reaching a resolution but acknowledged it might not be easy. "We are determined to go on meeting until we find a resolution to all our disputes," he said on Sunday.

The government came to power promising stability and a brighter future. However, suicide bombings and gunmen kill dozens of people every week and many Iraqis complain of power and water shortages, failings in other services and a lack of jobs.

Shiite unrest:

The poor, especially Shiites who expected a better future after the fall of Saddam's oppressive, Sunni-dominated administration, are still locked in a daily grind. Their frustrations boiled over in Samawa on Sunday.

Hundreds of people protested outside the local governor's office and called for his resignation. Police opened fire on the crowd, killing one man and wounding about 40 people, hospital and police sources said.

On Monday, as masked men exchanged rocket and rifle fire with police in parts of Samawa and most shops stayed closed, Mohammed al-Ghazawi, a representative of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, told Reuters protests would continue until the governor resigned and local services in Samawa improved.

Sadr's Mehdi Army militia rose up against U.S. and British forces last year. He is one of the important players in the south, where Shiite rivalries are intensifying ahead of new elections due in December if a constitution is adopted.

"We must deal with protests in a new way," Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari told regional leaders on Monday.

"Protests are a natural right...and the protesters have a right to say they don't want certain officials. This is a new right in the new Iraq and we must preserve it."

The United States has called on Iraqi leaders to settle their disputes quickly.

Talabani, aware that many Iraqis believe the United States is still running the show in Iraq more than two years after it invaded, insists the Americans are not exerting pressure.

"There is no pressure at all, there are consultations...The Americans are making efforts to narrow the differences."

Washington hopes that Iraq's leaders can unite and defeat the insurgency so that many of its 140,000 troops can go home.

The former head of Australian forces, U.S. allies in Iraq, said foreign troops were "one of the focal points of terrorist motivation". General Peter Cosgrove said foreign forces should aim to leave by the end of next year to help calm the revolt.

Federalism:

Talabani suggested there was no problem with the issue of federalism in the north, where his fellow Kurds have enjoyed a de facto state under U.S. military protection since 1991. However, he said calls for federalism in the Shiite south, home to the country's biggest oil reserves, were a matter for dispute.

Religious Shiites dominating the government oppose the idea but some prominent secular Shiites, including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a powerful figure in the oil sector, are pushing for it.

Chalabi's spokesman Entifadh Qanbar said he was pressing to maintain a provision in last year's interim constitution under which any three of Iraq's 18 provinces could band together to form a federal region. "To us this is law and nobody can turn back on it," Qanbar told Reuters.

Defying Islamic militant warnings that Sunnis participating in politics risk death, influential Arab Sunni officials have joined the constitution drafting committee. Sunni leaders are taking part in Talabani's talks. However, some hard-core Sunni insurgents vowed to keep fighting.

"The constitution does not represent the nation and it is being done under occupation," said one former member of Saddam's Baath party in the restive western province of Anbar.

Using the familiar name Abu Jihad, the 50-year-old rebel said: "It will split the country and we reject it."