Iraqis Still Undecided on Interim Gov't

Council members refused to say, however, how the presidency and his deputies would be chosen - and it was not clear whether there had been agreement on that issue. Shiites have demanded that the president be a Shiite, with Kurd and Sunni vice presidents, but other council members have resisted Shiite attempts to dominate the executive.

One of the toughest issues was how to enshrine Islam in the charter.

U.S. officials and liberals on the council succeeded in ensuring Islam is "a source" of legislation out of many - as opposed to "the" principle source as conservatives had sought.

Fundamentalists backed down after a clause was included underlining that no legislation will be passed the contravenes the tenets of Islam, several council members said.

Shiite council member Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said Iraq's historic and future identity was Islamic - a fact that "must be respected."

The members, however, were unable to agree on the terms and size of the Kurdish self-rule region in the north. Kurdish leaders had demanded the right to keep their peshmerga militia as a distinct armed force and to control oil and other resources in their region. They also sought to add districts to the autonomous area.

Council member Younadem Kana, an Assyrian Christian, said members agreed that all armed militias would be integrated eventually into an Iraqi army or the police.

Mahmoud Othman, a Sunni Kurd council member, said the Kurdish issues weren't abandoned, but set aside, for now.

"Some points simply could not be done ... but (our attitude is) what you can't have now, you will have later. That's why we didn't insist that it be now," he said.

The document describes the future Iraq as a federalist state along the lines of Canada, Brazil and India, with considerable authority handed to individual regions - though exactly what authorities is still to be worked out.

The charter would allow any of Iraq's 18 provinces to decide to join and form a federal region, Chalabi said. That would open the door for Shiites who dominate the southern provinces to piece together their own region similar to the Kurds' self-rule zone in the north.