The change, which has enraged Sunni leaders who oppose the document, was “not acceptable and would not meet international standards”, said José Aranaz, the legal adviser to the UN legal team in Iraq.

Originally the rules stated that a two-thirds majority of voters in three provinces could block the constitution. The new rules, approved by both Shia and Kurdish MPs on Sunday, say that two thirds of registered voters would be required. By contrast, only 50 per cent of actual voters is required for approval of the document.

Sunni leaders said that the Government was moving the goalposts to push through its constitution despite the reservations of the Sunni minority, who fear that its provisions for federalism will carve up the state along ethnic and religious lines.

Sunnis, who make up only 20 per cent of the population but who wielded disproportionate influence under Saddam Hussein, say that any voter who has registered but cannot make it to polling stations on October 15 — a likely scenario in many Sunni areas, where rebel control extensive — will effectively be counted as having voted “yes”. Saleh Mutlaq, a Sunni leader, said: “This is a forgery in advance.”

Ali al-Mashhadani, a Sunni law professor who sat on the constitutional committee, said: “Put simply, the constitution is a project that plants the seeds for the sectarian division of Iraq. They know that the places they are afraid will say ‘no’ or reject the constitutional draft may well be unsafe, and there will not be sufficient turnout for the required percentage for a rejection.” The row over the rule change coincided with the leak of a UN report on the constitution which said that the draft document was “a model for the territorial division of Iraq”.

The International Crisis Group (ICG), an independent Brussels-based think-tank, said the draft was “likely to fuel rather than dampen the insurgency, encourage ethnic and sectarian violence and hasten the country’s violent break-up”. Sunnis fear that the loose federalism of the new laws will encourage the Kurds and the Shia to form largely independent oil-rich regions, while the Sunni Triangle, in the grip of an insurgency, is a desert with virtually no natural resources.

An IGC report last week said that “the situation appears to be heading for . . . de facto partition and full-scale civil war. Options for salvaging the situation are gradually running out.”

Even among the ruling Shia and Kurdish blocs, divisions are starting to show, sparked by feuds over the distribution of power between Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shia Prime Minister, and Jalal Talabani, the secular Kurdish President. Mr Talabani has accused the Prime Minister of “violating laws” and his spokesman has called for Mr al-Jaafari to step down.

www.timesonline.co.uk/iraq
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