The people of Iraq have ratified the country's draft constitution after its opponents narrowly failed to reject the document, it was announced today.

Overall, 78 per cent of Iraqis voted for and 21 per cent against the constitution, the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq said.

But opponents, mainly Sunni Muslims who fear that the new Iraq will split into three largely autonomous regions, came close to mustering enough votes to derail the plan.

To defeat the constitution, the opposition needed to produce a two-thirds "no" vote in three of Iraq's 18 provinces. The Electoral Commission revealed yesterday that two provinces, Anbar and Salahuddin, had overwhelmingly rejected the constitution.

This morning all eyes were on Nineveh, a northern province with a mixed population of Sunni and Shia Muslim Arabs, where there was thought to be enough opposition to the constitution to produce a two-thirds vote.

But voters in Nineveh rejected the document with a majority of only 55.01 per cent, which allowed the constitution to become law.

In the immediate aftermath of the referendum, there were allegations of widespread vote-rigging and intimidation in Nineveh, whose capital is the troubled city of Mosul. Today, Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni Muslim who helped draft the constitution, called the Nineveh's result "a farce".

"The people were shocked to find out that their vote is worthless because of the major fraud that takes place in Iraq," Mr al-Mutlaq told the al-Arabiya television channel.

In contrast, Carina Perelli, head of the UN team supporting the Electoral Commission, said today's results were accurate: "It has been audited, controlled. It has been done really in a very professional way," she said.

The approval of the draft constitution paves the way for elections to the Parliament in December, although Iraqi leaders are expected to convene before then to make final adjustments to the constitution under a compromise agreed before the draft was put before voters.

Around 9.75 million Iraqis voted in the referendum ten days ago, a turnout of 63 per cent. The draft constitution places considerable power in the hands of regional authorities, and enshrines the autonomy of the Kurds autonomy in the north. Iraq's Shia-dominated south is also expected to become an autonomous region.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, welcomed today's result and called for an increased turnout for the elections in December.

"The Iraqi people have shown again their determination to defy the terrorists and take part in the democratic process," said Mr Straw in a statement. "This is an important step in the development of a democratic, stable and inclusive Iraq."

"It is vital that there is maximum participation across all parts of Iraq in the elections in December, to ensure a fully representative Government and Council of Representatives that will have the job of taking forward the implementation and review of this constitution," he added.

The results came as the American military death toll in Iraq rose to 1,999 and militants launched four attacks in Baghdad and two in the relatively peaceful north of the country.

In Baghdad, a string of bombings and shootings killed six people, including a 7-year-old boy who died after a roadside bomb exploded in Askan, a commercial neighbourhood of the city. Three Iraqi policemen and two soldiers were also killed in the violence, which wounded 45.

In the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah, there were two suicide attacks. One car bomb exploded outside a government building used by the Kurdish militia, killing at least nine people.

The US military announced today that two Marines had been killed on Friday by a roadside bomb in the town of Amariya outside Fallujah.

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