The Iraqi Government's campaign to win support for the country's new constitution has won the critical backing of the most influential Shi'ite religious leader, less than a month before a national referendum on the draft charter.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, meeting with aides on Thursday in the holy city of Najaf, urged his followers to vote "yes" on the new basic law, according to two top officials in al-Sistani's organization. In January, millions of Shi'ites followed al-Sistani's call to vote in Iraq's first democratic elections in nearly half a century, and the ballot gave the Muslim sect a majority in the new parliament and government.

If two-thirds of the voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject the constitution during the October 15 national referendum, a new government must be formed and the process of writing the document would start again.

Days after the draft constitution was approved by Iraq's National Assembly and sent to the United Nations for printing and distribution, the government issued fliers and posters, with the banner headline stating: "Read the constitution, it was written for your freedom." But copies of the proposed constitution have not yet been distributed to the Iraqi public.

Most Sunni Muslim clerics and politicians have urged their followers to vote against the document, complaining that they did not have adequate representation in drafting it.

Saudi chides US policy

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister says the Bush administration did not heed some Saudi warnings on occupying Iraq and that he does not believe a new constitution and elections will solve the emerging nation's problems.

Prince Saud al-Faisal, Saudi's foreign minister, expressed scepticism at Bush administration officials' predictions that the upcoming political events in Iraq would heal the country's divisions.

"Perhaps what they are saying is going to happen," he said. "I wish it would happen, but I don't think that a constitution by itself will resolve the issues, or an election by itself will solve the difficult problems."

US policies in Iraq risk dividing the country into three separate parts: Kurdish, Sunni and Shi'ite, he cautioned.

"We have not seen a move inside Iraq that would satisfy us that the national unity of Iraq, and therefore the territorial unity of Iraq, will be assured," he said.

He also said the Saudis were sceptical of the outcome before the United States went to war in Iraq, but its concerns weren't always heeded.

Source: China Daily