U.S. pushes issues in Iraq constitution

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Less than three weeks before Iraq's National Assembly is to approve a new constitution, the United States is trying to influence its provisions on issues such as women's rights, federalism and the distribution of oil revenue.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad made clear in his first days on the job that he plans to help bring ethnic and sectarian groups together to forge a compromise document. "It's very important that the constitution is produced through the participation of all Iraqis," Khalilzad said yesterday.

A draft of the constitution published yesterday in the daily Al Sabah outlined an explicitly Islamic state with a strong Shiite identity and less progressive laws for women than existed under Saddam Hussein.

It also plans to give sweeping powers and potentially considerable oil revenues to newly created federal regions to spend as they see fit. Those provisions, critics said, could deepen ethnic divides.

Khalilzad emphasized the importance of preserving women's rights: "A society cannot achieve all its potential if it does things that prevent ... half of its population to make the fullest contribution that it can."

In insurgent violence, meanwhile, attackers hurled grenades and fired automatic weapons at two buses carrying workers near Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, killing at least 16, police said.

Separately, a video posted on the Internet showed an Algerian diplomat who was kidnapped last week. The diplomat, wearing a blindfold, and another Algerian seized with him had been subjected to "the judgment of God" and would be killed, said an accompanying statement, attributed to an insurgent group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Material from The Washington Post is included in this report.