Major Failure: Iraq Misses Key Deadline To Finish Constitution...

Major Failure: Iraq Misses Key Deadline To Finish Constitution...

Iraqi leaders failed to meet a key deadline Monday to finish a new constitution, stalling over the same fundamental issues of power-sharing - including federalism, oil wealth and Islam's impact on women - that have bedeviled the country since Saddam Hussein's ouster.

Just 20 minutes before midnight, parliament voted to give negotiators another seven days, until Aug. 22, to try to draft the charter. The delay was a strong rebuff of the Bush administration's insistence that the deadline be met, even if some issues were unresolved, to maintain political momentum and blunt Iraq's deadly insurgency.

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