Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said that almost all issues dogging the draft constitution were resolved, but Sunnis warned it was divisive and would be rejected when put to the nation. As Jaafari expressed confidence, a suicide bomber blasted a U.S.-Iraqi center in the restive town of Baaquba killing seven people, including one U.S. soldier and a contractor.

"We have agreed on 151 of the 153 articles in the constitution, including the federal status of the government and the status of regions and provinces," Jaafari said, without specifying where the disputes remained.

He said issues concerning human rights, which included women's rights, have also been agreed upon. "We have made an important stride," he said.

In a nail-biting drama, Parliament on Monday received only an incomplete draft of the country's first post-Saddam constitution, submitted under intense U.S. pressure but without the approval of the Sunni minority.

But several issues remained unresolved, including the mechanism for implementing federalism, the treatment of former regime officials, and how to divide authority between the presidency, Parliament and the government.

Negotiations, particularly with dissatisfied Sunni representatives, will continue until tomorrow in an effort to bridge remaining differences over the text, which must be approved in an October referendum.

U.S. President George W. Bush urged the Sunnis to embrace the blueprint. "The Sunnis have got to make a choice. Do they want to live in a society that's free, or do they want to live in violence?" he said.

UN chief Kofi Annan also appealed for "flexibility" among Iraq's rival communities.

Sunni Arabs have warned that the charter in its current form would divide the country.

"The draft ... will divide the society as there are many negatives in it," Sunni negotiator Saleh al-Motlag said. "Ninety-nine percent of Sunnis are unhappy with it. It will fail during the referendum."

Sunnis fear a decentralized government will cut their share of the nation's vast oil reserves, mainly concentrated in the Kurdish north and Shiite south.

The charter in Article 109 stipulates that "the oil and gas of all the regions belong to the entirety of the Iraqi people," adding that the resources should be controlled by Baghdad and the oil-producing regions.

Sunni leaders have indicated that they would try to mobilize support for a "No" vote in the referendum.

The constitution will be rejected if two thirds of voters in three or more of Iraq's 18 provinces vote "No."

The Sunnis are a clear majority in at least three provinces in the heartland of the insurgency: Anbar, Salaheddine and Nineveh.

A Sunni delegation met Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission to discuss ways of ensuring participation in those three regions, the commission said in a statement.

President Jalal Talabani, who has brought Iraqi leaders together for weeks in a bid to keep the political process on track, renewed mediation efforts.

A statement from his office said that the Kurdish leader urged all Iraqi sects to unite on the issue of the constitution.

But all sides held fast to their positions.

The Shiite head of the parliamentary drafting committee again made clear he did not intend to reopen contentious clauses such as those on autonomous "federal" regions.

Humam Hammoudi said the Sunni negotiators brought in from outside Parliament were not representative and the assembly should now submit the draft to the referendum.

Shiites and Kurds said they might offer minor concessions, but were ready to use their parliamentary muscle to push through the draft.

The United States had pressured the Kurds to soften their demands of self-determination, inclusion of oil-rich Kirkuk in their autonomous northern region and limiting the role of Islam in lawmaking.

U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said that there was also no consensus in the constitution on how to deal with former members of Saddam's Baath Party.

"With regard to the Baath Party, the current draft does speak about that ... That is one of the issues on which there isn't consensus or near consensus," Khalilzad told reporters.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said five Iraqis, including a policeman, also died in the Baaquba suicide bomb attack.

Nine U.S. soldiers were wounded, while a U.S. civilian contractor was also wounded along with six Iraqis and four Iraqi policemen.

The U.S. military also announced deaths of three other troops killed over the last three days across Iraq.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal trying Saddam Hussein confirmed the former dictator had retained only his Iraqi lawyer after sacking his entire foreign defense team.

"Saddam confirmed that he has dismissed all lawyers and canceled their authorizations ... and that only authorized lawyer is Khalil Doulaimi," the tribunal said.