23 March 2004	Tuesday	01 Safar 1425

BAGHDAD, March 22: Iraq's top Shia leader has urged the United Nations not to endorse the country's interim constitution, his office said on Monday, raising a potentially grave obstacle to US plans to hand power to Iraqis on July 1.

Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani told senior UN official Lakhdar Brahimi in a letter that unless the United Nations rejects the constitution, he would boycott a UN team expected to visit Iraq soon to advise on forming an interim government.

Another threat to any orderly transition is the violence that has convulsed Iraq since the US-led invasion a year ago. As US-led forces struggle with the insurgency, Washington has pushed ahead with plans to return sovereignty to Iraq in 10 weeks' time, under a transitional law signed by the US-backed Iraqi Governing Council earlier this month.

OBJECTIONS: Sistani, in a letter published by his office, said the United Nations should not approve the de facto constitution. "The (Shia) religious establishment fears the occupation authorities will work to include this law in a new UN resolution to give it international legitimacy," he wrote.

"We warn that any such step will not be acceptable to the majority of Iraqis and will have dangerous consequences." The scholar's letter is likely to dismay US authorities keen to stick to the mid-year handover deadline on the basis of the interim constitution, preferably with UN approval.

Sistani wields great influence over Iraq's majority Shia population. His reservations held up the signing of the interim constitution for days. His latest objections could jeopardise the US handover deadline, or at least undermine the legitimacy of any Iraqi government that assumes power.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said last week he would send a team to Iraq soon to help in the formation of an interim government, at the request of the Governing Council.

Some Shia leaders have criticised Brahimi and Annan for a report they wrote which concurred with US authorities that general elections were not immediately feasible. Sistani had wanted full national elections before June 30, which would probably have favoured the Shia majority.

Under the interim constitution, direct elections must be held by January 2005 for a transitional government which will oversee the writing of a permanent constitution.

In his letter, Sistani said the interim constitution was unworkable because it sets up a three-person presidential council, which he said would comprise a Sunni, a Kurd and a Shia. They would be required to take unanimous decisions.

"This builds a basis for sectarianism. Consensus would not be reached unless there is pressure from a foreign power, or a deadlock would be reached that destabilises the country and could lead to break-up," Sistani said.

US SOLDIER KILLED: Anti-American insurgents killed a US soldier and an Iraqi interpreter with a roadside bomb as they were carrying out a patrol west of Baghdad, the US military said on Monday.

The killing took place on Saturday evening as a group of soldiers were moving through the volatile district of Abu Ghraib on the western outskirts of the capital.

"A Task Force 1st Armoured Division soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed and three other soldiers were wounded during an (improvised explosive device) attack on Sunday," a statement from the US military said.

The deaths raise to 396 the number of US soldiers and Marines killed in action since American forces invaded Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein a year ago. -Reuters