BEIJING, Aug. 27 -- Iraq's Shiite-dominated constitution committee will submit an amended draft charter to parliament this weekend despite opposition from minority Sunni Arabs who rejected a proposed compromise, according to an AP report. 

    The chairman of the committee, Sheik Humam Hammoudi, a Shiite, said "there has been an agreement on the differences including the federalism issue. This will give guarantees for the Sunnis."

    But Sunni negotiators said they did not accept the revised document, and one of them, Saleh al-Mutlaq, called on Iraqis to reject the document in the Oct. 15 referendum, warning of a "terrifying and dark future awaiting Iraq."

    Hammoudi said 5 million copies of the final version would be printed in Arabic and Kurdish ¡ª which the new charter designates as official languages ¡ª and distributed to the public along with their monthly food rations.

    Despite more than two months of talks, the various factions could not agree on fundamental issues involving the future of Iraq. These included the country's identity, whether Iraq would continue as a centralized state or a federation based on religion and ethnicity and whether former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, most of them Sunnis, would have a future in the new Iraq.

    The issue of federalism is critical: Sunnis fear not only a giant Shiite state in the south but also future bids by the Kurds to expand their region into northern oil-producing areas, as they have demanded. That would leave the Sunnis cut off from Iraq's oil wealth in the north and south. More than a million Sunni Arabs live in areas dominated by Shiites.

    "There is a terrifying and dark future awaiting Iraq," said Al-Mutlaq, the Sunni negotiator. "It is important to present services for the Iraqis now, as well as to maintain security, and it is not important to write a piece of paper that all Iraqis disagree on."

    Asked about Shiite offers, he replied: "We are still far from what we need and what the people need."

    "This is the end of the road," government spokesman Laith Kubba told Al-Arabiya television. "In the end, we will put this constitution to the people to decide."

    (Source: Agencies)