BAGHDAD, Oct 3: The head of Iraq’s top Shia political party said on Friday that national elections be held to choose the drafters of a new constitution, piling pressure on the United States and Britain.

“The drafting of a permanent constitution for the country must be done by a panel elected by the Iraqi people,” Abdel Aziz al Hakim, who heads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, said at a mourning ceremony in Najaf for his brother, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al Hakim, assassinated in August.

“It must be ratified through a nationwide referendum,” Aziz Hakim said before a crowd of 10,000 people marking the final week commemorating 40 days of mourning for the slain leader.

Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, the most revered Shia leader in Iraq, has come out publicly in favour of an election to the conference that would draft a new constitution.

“Aziz, you are the leader,” the crowd chanted, as green and black flags fluttered in the air by Baqer Hakim’s mausoleum at Revolution Square, in the heart of Najaf, 180 kilometres south of the capital.

Prayer leader Sadreddin al Qobanshi also called for “the speedy withdrawal of occupation forces” from Iraq, a demand repeated at Friday sermons across the country.

For its part, the US said on Friday it would not stand in the way of Iraq’s interim 25-member Governing Council if it wants to hold elections to choose who writes the country’s new constitution.

“It will be for the Governing Council to decide,” said a spokesman for the US-led occupation forces.

While the council has appeared to favour the council’s own nomination of delegates to a constitutional conference, the spokesman reiterated that the US boss in Iraq, Paul Bremer, who holds a veto over the lawmakers, would not stand in the council’s way.

“He (Bremer) has always said Iraq, this is a decision for you ... This is your decision. This is your baby,” said the spokesman.

The Governing Council is soon expected to make a decision on how to proceed on writing the constitution after receiving recommendations on Tuesday from a preparatory committee on the matter.

Once a constitution is written, it will be submitted to a national referendum and then elections for an Iraqi government will be held, clearing the way for the occupation forces to relinquish control over the country.

The push-and-pull over the constitution coincides with admissions by US officials that they are facing a tough battle on the ground from guerillas almost six months after Saddam Hussein was toppled.

“The enemy has evolved and he is a little more lethal, a little more complex, a little more sophisticated and in some cases a little more tenacious,” the top US commander in Iraq, Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, said on Thursday.

The danger of the enemy “has increased a little bit because they are using more improvised explosives against us ... So he has evolved, he is learning, but so are we and this will continue for a little while”, he said.

Every week between three and six US soldiers were being killed and another 40 were wounded, Gen Sanchez said.

KIRKUK: In the northern city of Kirkuk, the US military said, two Iraqis were killed by an explosion on Thursday night, but it would not confirm local reports they were failed suicide bombers.