Shiites Cut Off Talks on Charter

Other sides had asked the "Sunnis to give their bottom lines," Khalilzad said. Sunni negotiators made clear their bottom line was federalism, which most Sunnis oppose as a mechanism that could lead to the breakup of Iraq. "They could not support a constitution that made it automatic that any region could form a federal region" beyond the Kurdish north, Khalilzad said.

Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, this month proposed creation of what would be an oil-rich Shiite sub-state in the south, comprising nine of Iraq's 18 regions. Sunnis and others have voiced fears that such a state would be under the sway of the Shiite theocracy in neighboring Iran, while leaving Sunnis in central and western Iraq with few resources and little political power.

The draft constitution, as it stood early Sunday, allowed for the next National Assembly to approve creation of a new federal region by a simple majority, authorities said. Shiites make up an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's population and would almost certainly hold a majority in the next assembly.

Sunni Arabs, who made up Iraq's ruling elite for decades but fell from dominance with the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003, largely stayed out of this past January's National Assembly elections in response to insurgent threats and boycott calls from Sunni leaders. The move left them with comparatively little political leverage in the constitutional negotiations.

The constitutional draft discussed by leaders early Sunday appeared not to have changed greatly on its main points from a proposal submitted Friday by Shiite leaders, who described it then as their last, best offer. It omitted reference to the Shiites as the majority in Iraq and cut a reference to Shiite spiritual leaders being entitled to special reverence, according to officials.

In a compromise sought by Sunnis, the draft requires only a vote of an absolute majority to dissolve the government committee created to purge high-ranking, criminal or disloyal members of Hussein's Baath Party from government positions, officials said. The draft also removes a specific condemnation of Baathists, officials said.

Some Sunni leaders responded Saturday to the Shiites' proposal with 13 objections, and later with their own counterproposals.

Mishan Jabouri, a National Assembly member who found the Shiite offer on federalism unacceptable, said he had hoped a counterproposal would find acceptance and that hard-liners among his own people would yield.

"I appealed to them because . . . we have a historic chance ahead of us," Jabouri said. "I told them, 'I fear for the country from you. I am about to cry, because you are leading the Sunni street.' "

Khalilzad spoke to the top Sunni negotiators Saturday afternoon "and we said we don't agree," said Mutlak, the Sunni negotiator. "He said this is as far as he can go. We gave him two pages of demands, and he said he can't go anymore."

"None of the demands are met," Mutlak said. "There's no agreement and they will submit it . . . . Things will deteriorate in every aspect. The stability will be less. The violence will be up. The demonstrations on the street will be up."

"They informed us to come tomorrow at 3 o'clock to celebrate," Mutlak said. Asked if he felt like celebrating, Mutlak responded, "What do you think?"

About 350 Sunnis rallied near Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, on Saturday against the proposed constitution, chanting anti-federalism slogans. Past days' rallies in other cities saw angry Sunnis waving posters of Hussein.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, released 1,000 detainees from Abu Ghraib prison Saturday in response to an Iraqi government request to speed up the process of reviewing individual cases, said Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, a U.S. military spokesman on detainees. The release leaves 3,800 prisoners in the U.S. section of Abu Ghraib, which the Americans plan to turn over to the Iraqi government next year, Rudisill said.

U.S. military forces said in a statement that troops in Mosul on Thursday killed a Saudi, identified only as Abu Khallad, who had worked with recruiters in Saudi Arabia to bring foreign fighters into northern Iraq.

In political violence on Saturday, an explosion inside a house where insurgents allegedly were preparing bombs killed one man near Kirkuk, police Col. Yadgar Abdullah said. Gunmen killed an Iraqi deputy battalion commander, Lt. Col. Muhammad Fakhri, at Kirkuk on Saturday, police said.

U.S. forces at Hamrin mountain, 40 miles south of Kirkuk, arrested four Iraqi policemen after an explosion targeting an American military convoy, police Capt. Ahmad Sabawi said.

Special correspondents Naseer Nouri in Baghdad and Salih Saif Aldin in Tikrit contributed to this report.