A long-delayed signing ceremony for Iraq's temporary constitution looks likely to go ahead Monday after a group of Shia Muslim leaders said they had ironed out concerns with the text over the weekend.
"You will hear very good news, very soon, the signing will take place Monday," Governing Council member Muwaffaq al-Rubaie said Sunday, after talks at the home of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the revered Shia spiritual leader who holds an effective veto over the document.
"An agreement has been reached and the signature will take place in any event on Monday," he added, without specifying the exact nature of the accord, or whether it had been approved by other parties on the council.
Amid the optimism, several rockets landed in the grounds of the US-led coalition headquarters in Baghdad, where the signing ceremony was scheduled to take place Friday. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Iraqi Shia leaders have worked since Saturday to resolve disputes over certain clauses in the basic law, which prompted them to withdraw their endorsement of the crucial text and refuse to sign it.
By late Sunday, it appeared a compromise had been reached without the need for any changes to be made to the document.
"There is no change of wording. There is an understanding on what it will do," said Entifidh Qanbar, a spokesman for Shia council member Ahmad Chalabi.
The US-picked Governing Council's 25 members would meet at 10:00 am (0700 GMT) at their headquarters in Baghdad before setting the time to sign it later in the day, said council spokesman Hamid Kifaieh.
Insiders to the constitutional talks blamed Sistani for Friday's walkout.
"I was so embarrassed and upset" when the meeting was delayed, said Rajaa Habib al-Khuzai, a Shia councillor.
But she was confident of a signing Monday.
"I received a phone call an hour ago from Najaf (where Sistani lives) and was told that the agreement has been done and everyone accepts," she said.
US overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer also expressed hope of a happy ending.
"We hope the signing ceremony will happen tomorrow," Bremer said in an interview on Fox News.
In a blow to the US-led coalition, five Shia councillors retracted their endorsement of the interim law after voicing objections to a clause in the basic law that gave what they felt to be unfair power to the Kurdish north.
The spoilers also wanted a greater presence in Iraq's next executive and indicated concern about Kurdish becoming an official state language, a source close to the negotiations told AFP.
Bremer denied that the hold-up represented a major setback to the process of restoring self-rule to Iraq a year after US-led forces invaded to topple Saddam.
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