Last-minute objections by five Shia leaders forced the indefinite postponement of Friday's signing of an interim constitution for Iraq, threatening US plans to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30.
Political sources said the five dissenters were following the advice of Iraq's most revered Shia leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and were pushing for greater Shia influence in a sovereign Iraq - which may put them on a collision course with Sunni Arabs and Kurds who also want their voices heard.
Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council announced last Monday it had agreed on an interim constitution after days of heated talks, and musicians and a choir of children had assembled for the signing ceremony at 4 pm (1300 GMT).
But the ceremony never took place. It was the second delay in signing the document - a ceremony scheduled for Wednesday was postponed after bomb attacks on Shia worshippers the previous day killed 181 people in Baghdad and Kerbala.
Hamid al-Bayati, from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), said five Shia Governing Council members had objected to several aspects of the document. Shias make up around 60 percent of Iraq's population.
SHIAS AND KURDS AT ODDS: One major point of contention was a clause on a referendum due to be held next year to approve a permanent constitution once it has been drawn up.
The clause states that even if a majority of Iraqis approves the constitution, it can be vetoed if two-thirds of voters in three provinces reject it.
The clause was inserted by the Kurds, who run three provinces of northern Iraq and want the power to veto any attempt to rein in their considerable autonomy.
"At the last minute, the very last minute, there was a switch by the Shias and they objected strongly to a clause which says that if three provinces don't agree on the constitution then it goes back (to parliament)," Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the council, told Reuters.
"They consider that a provocation and the imposition of the will of the minority on the majority."
Senior coalition officials played down the delay, saying it was not about priority issues - the role of Islam in the state and the role of women - and differences were being settled.
"If you want neat and tidy, get a dictatorship," one official said, adding that the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, was sitting in on the council talks. A council source said Bremer was negotiating individually with the five holdouts.
"Bremer thinks it's an incredibly healthy process and he wants it to play out," the coalition official said.
Governing Council sources said another point of disagreement was the structure of Iraq's presidential council. They said Shias wanted a five-member rather than a three-member presidential council, with three Shias, a Sunni and a Kurd.
Bayati said the council members who raised objections were Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of SCIRI, Ibrahim Jaafari of the Dawa party, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, current council president Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, and Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress.
ROAD MAP FOR DEMOCRACY: Iraqi and US officials say the transitional constitution sees elections for a transitional assembly by the end of January 2005. That assembly will draft a permanent constitution and prepare for full polls by the end of 2005.
The document does not specify the shape of the government that will take over when Washington hands over power on June 30, a fact some political sources said was also a problem for Shia leaders.
The constitution includes a bill of rights US officials say is comprehensive, but the campaigning group Human Rights Watch said it did not do enough to guarantee women equal rights.
As well as struggling to get Iraqis to agree on a political road map, the US-led administration is also battling a guerrilla insurgency which officers say is increasingly being led by foreign militants, some with links to al Qaeda.
Washington says a suspected al Qaeda operative, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is the prime suspect in a string of major attacks including Tuesday's bombings.