The Iraqi Islamic Party announced Tuesday its full rejection to the country's new draft constitution, saying the charter threatened "national unity and the identity of the Iraqi people."

The influential Sunni party called on Iraqis to reject the document in the Oct. 15 referendum.

"We tried hard to come out with a constitution that preserves the unity of Iraq and its interests, but our efforts were ignored," the party said in a statement.

"The text of the draft threatened the national unity and identity of the Iraqi people and will pave the way for robbing the wealth of the country, so we call upon our people to reject this draft," it added.

The Sunni Arabs have warned that if the constitution was not revised and amended to "harmonize with the higher interests of the country and guarantee the unity of Iraqis by achieving justice for all", then the draft would be rejected.

The Sunni leaders, who boycotted the Jan. 30 elections, said they were mobilizing voters to vote down the draft constitution in the coming referendum.

If the charter is approved by Iraqi voters in mid-October, new elections will be held by the end of the year to form a new parliament.

However, if two thirds of the voters in any three Iraqi provinces say no in the referendum, the constitution will be vetoed, then the parliament will be dissolved.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2005)