In an effort to defuse a looming crisis with the Kurdish leadership, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, says his government will adhere to the interim constitution agreed to in March until elections are held next year.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/11/1086749893894.html?oneclick=true

Dr Allawi's spokesman, George Hada, earlier this week confirmed the new Government's "full commitment" to the interim constitution.

This followed a threat by Kurdish leaders to pull back from the Iraqi state and possibly secede, after officials in New York failed to include the interim constitution in the United Nations Security Council resolution, approved on Tuesday, on the return of sovereignty to the Iraqis.

The Kurds are concerned that without the protections in the interim constitution they might lose the broad autonomy they have gained since 1991 under US military protection. The interim constitution recognises the autonomy of the Kurdish region and grants the Kurds extraordinary powers to protect it.

Many Shiite leaders say it is at that point, when the Shiites are expected to hold a majority of the seats in the national assembly, that they would remove the language that grants the Kurds effective veto power over the permanent constitution.

That language was a central component in the compromise that persuaded the Kurds in March to agree to the interim constitution, and to affirm a commitment to the Iraqi state.

Before the war to oust Saddam Hussein, the US counted on the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq as its closest ally. But now some Kurdish leaders say Washington has betrayed them. Kurds fear that the Shiite majority may try to impose Islamic law through the new constitution, or dilute Kurdish control of oilfields in their region.

"It's not just that we have been misled by the Americans," a Kurdish official said. "It's also that they change their position day to day without any focus on real strategy in Iraq. There's a level of mismanagement and incompetence that is shocking."

Kurdish leaders spent much of Thursday discussing the future, which they have increasingly suggested may include secession.