The Iraqi parliament has delayed meeting to approve a draft constitution tonight as talks to finalise the document dragged on.

The time of the debate was delayed first by two hours, from 6pm to 8pm (1700 BST), and when that time was passed it was delayed again, this time indefinitely.

The divisive issues are known to be Shia demands that the new Republic of Iraq should obey religious law, and Shia and Kurd demands for regional autonomy - fiercely resisted by the Sunni minority.

Some members of the 275-member National Assembly suggested that parliament should extend the deadline for approving the charter, while others said that the majority should simply ignore Sunni objections.

Kurdish parliament member Mahmoud Othman said this afternoon that members of the committee drafting the constitution were still holding meetings on the outstanding issues and so far "no final agreements have been reached".

Tariq al-Hashimi, the general secretary of Iraq’s biggest Sunni political group, the Iraqi Islamic party, told Al-Jazeera television that the minority’s demands were not the only obstacles blocking progress. Instead, he said Shias and Kurds also had "points of disagreement" and it might be better to delay a decision.

But a Kurdish member of the drafting committee, Munthir al-Fadl, warned that if the Kurds didn’t get what they wanted on issues of self-determination and the authority of provincial governors, "this constitution will not succeed and will not even reach the gates of the National Assembly."

Under Iraq's interim constitution, today is the deadline for a new constitution to be approved, triggering a period of public consultation, a referendum and fresh elections. Extending the deadline would require approval of two-thirds of parliament and the president and his two deputies.

One of the few points that has been agreed on was the name of the country — the Republic of Iraq — which rejected the Sunni demand for "Arab", the Kurdish demand for "Federal" and the Shia desire for "Islamic".

Representatives say that they have also agreed a formula for the division of oil revenues although there were suggestions that this was not yet written in stone.

The issue of federalism, once largely a Kurdish demand for recognition of their de facto autonomy in the north, was complicated last week by a push from the Shias for an autonomous region in the south. Sunni leaders said that such a proposition espoused, in effect, the break-up of the country into an oil-rich north and south and an impoverished and insurgency-wracked centre left to fend for itself.

Fears of missing the deadline, seen as a key milestone for American withdrawal, prompted the US to get involved in negotiations, even presenting a written proposal outlining a skeletal agreement with key details to be decided later.

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