Iraq's parliament received a draft constitution on Monday, minutes before a midnight deadline, but there was no vote and parliamentary speaker said they would work for three days to resolve some outstanding issues.

"A few issues remain to be settled and will be dealt with within three days," Parliament Speaker Hajim al-Hassani told the lawmakers.

He said it was very important to reach unanimity "so that the constitution pleases everyone."

"But after that, every party in the parliament can express its own position upon the issues," he added, referring to a possible vote by parliament members.

Following a very short parliament session, Hassani told reporters that the main outstanding issues were federalism, control of oil revenues, problems related to mentioning the Baath Party in the constitution and the division of powers between the president, parliament and cabinet.

The draft constitution, considered a key step in Iraq's political process, had missed the Aug. 15 deadline due to differences over much the same issues.

Sunni Arabs, who are relatively marginalized after the topple of Saddam Hussein's regime, failed to reach compromise with the Shiites and Kurds over the final wording of the draft constitution.

If the charter is approved by parliament in the coming days, it will be put to a referendum in mid October. If approved by the referendum, new elections will be held by the end of the year to form a new parliament.

However, if two thirds of voters in any three Iraqi provinces say no to the referendum, the constitution will be vetoed, then the parliament will be dissolved which could be a political disaster for the war-torn country.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2005)