The head of the panel drawing up Iraq's new constitution announced on Monday that a draft of the document would be ready by a mid-August deadline, Reuters reported. "We can get it completed by August 15," Humam Hammoudi, head of the 71-member drafting committee, told parliament. He said there were still five or six points of difference among the drafters but was hopeful they would be resolved. Hammoudi said only one chapter of the document remained to be written and he expected it would be completed in the next 10 days or so. "We will work day and night to finish it on time. Even our Sunni brothers insist on finishing it on time," he said. The speaker of parliament confirmed that no formal request for an extension to the deadline had been made. The schedule calls for the draft constitution to be written by Aug. 15, put to a referendum by Oct. 15 and elections for a new government to be held under the charter by Dec 15.
