BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi lawmakers on Monday night voted in favor to amend the interim law for a new Aug. 22 deadline to finalize the country's constitution.

    The approval came after Parliament Speaker Hajim al-Hasani proposed the one week extension for constitution deadline.

    The progress of drawing up Iraq's permanent constitution has been repeatedly hindered by the conflicts between various parties in Iraq and the chaotic security condition in the country.

    Here is a brief account of the twists and turns during the making of the permanent constitution in the disquieted country.

    In early May, the interim National Assembly nominated a 55-member committee to take charge of the drafting of the constitution, but that was opposed by the minority Sunni Arabs, which had only two seats in the committee.

    In early June, an alliance of influential Sunni Muslims in Iraqthreatened to boycott drawing up the constitution unless the number of Sunni representatives in the parliamentary committee tasked with drafting the constitution was increased to 25.

    Under the provisional constitution, the draft of the constitution would be annulled if two thirds of voters in three ofIraq's 18 provinces vetoed it.

    As Sunni Arabs made up some 20 percent of Iraqi population and have great influence in at least three provinces, the constitution-drafting committee had to reconsider the interests ofthe Sunni Arabs.

    On June 16, Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Arabs struck a deal to add 15 Sunni members to the constitution-drafting committee, amid a renewed wave of violence across the country.

    The committee was enlarged from 55 members to 70 members, and another 10 Sunni Arabs serve as consultants to the committee, according to the deal.

    On July 19, three Sunni constitution-drafting committee memberswere killed in Bagdad, which further complicated the already intricate process.

    One day later, Sunni Arabs suspended their membership in the constitution-drafting committee to boycott the drafting process. They agreed on July 25 to return to the drafting table, after their demands for an investigation into the killing of the three Sunni members were met.

    However by this time, great divisions still existed among committee members, which had no more than one month to meet the Aug. 15 deadline.

    According to the provisional constitution, the committee could ask for more time to write the charter and resolve the persistent divisions among their group. The deadline for requesting an extension was Aug. 1.

    However, the postponement of the drafting would directly affectthe timely implementation of the referendum, which is prescribed by the provisional constitution to be carried out before Oct. 15, as well as impact the general election scheduled for the end of the year.

    On July 31, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani called on the constitution committee to make every effort to finish the draftingof the constitution on time.

    The constitution committee announced on Aug. 1 that, though members of the committee were still divided over some parts of theconstitution, they would finish the drafting of the constitution and submit it to the National Assembly for approval by Aug. 15 as scheduled.

    On Aug. 15, Iraqi lawmakers voted in favor to amend the interim law for a new Aug. 22 deadline to finalize the country's constitution. Enditem