A six-month period set by the United States is not enough for Iraqis to write a new constitution, a spokesman for the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) said Tuesday.

"I don't think six months will be sufficient, but we must wait and see," said Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for the current rotating IGC president Ahmed Chalabi.

Qanbar said the Iraqis need more time to discuss certain issues concerning the future constitution and then to adopt it.

The six-month period proposal was first raised by US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday as a sign of compromise with Washington's rivals in the United Nations.

"Six months seems to be a good timeline to put out there for the creation of a constitution," Powell told a press conference in New York.

US officials then repeatedly conceded that the period does not necessarily mean a deadline.

Top US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said later that Powell "was talking about the period after the ... constitutional conference convention is assembled."

On Tuesday, a US military spokesman said the proposal was "not a deadline as this is not processed yet."

"We are not set in any deadlines for the writing of a new Iraqi constitution," said Lt. Col. George Krivo.

The IGC kicked off discussions Monday over the recommendations submitted by a preparatory committee on the election of the constitutional assembly.

The preparatory committee has reportedly made a number of suggestions over the process of drafting a constitution, ranging from several weeks to two years.

The United States sees the new Iraqi constitution prior to a legitimate sovereign government the only condition for the US forces to pull out.

A clear timetable of power transfer is one of the contentions at the UN general assembly as the United States was pushing for a new Iraqi resolution to rally more military and financial support.
 
(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2003)