Shiites Offer to Give Sunnis Larger Role on Broader Panel Writing a Constitution - New York Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 25 - Under American pressure to draw Sunni Arabs into the drafting of Iraq's constitution, the Shiite religious parties that dominate the transitional government agreed Wednesday to re-establish a constitutional commission with as many as 15 of the 101 seats reserved for Sunni Arabs.

Sheik Humam Hammoudi, chairman of the committee drawing up a permanent constitution for Iraq, says Islam must remain central in the drafting of future legislation. The membership of the panel is still in doubt.

The decision came after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Robert B. Zoellick, made separate visits to Baghdad last week and urged the new government to reach out to the Sunni Arab minority, which lost power when Saddam Hussein was toppled. In particular, they pressed the Shiites to draw Sunni Arabs into the constitution-making process, the next phase in the American blueprint for democracy here."