The head of Iraq's U.S.-backed Governing Council said on Thursday a plan agreed with Washington to transfer power to Iraqis would be amended after objections from the country's top Shi'ite cleric.
Jalal Talabani, current head of the Governing Council, told reporters after a meeting with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani that the agreement would be modified to ease the cleric's concerns.
"The agreement remains, but there's to be an appendix, with other texts. The agreement is developing," he said.
The approval of Sistani, who is reported to believe the plan pays insufficient heed to Islam and gives Iraqis too little say, is crucial for winning widespread backing for the U.S. timetable from Iraqi Shi'ites, who make up 60 percent of the population.
Talabani met with Sistani after the cleric voiced his reservations about the plan, which foresees indirect elections for a body that would pick a transitional government and oversee the writing of a constitution.
"His one reservation was that he prefers running elections for the...national transitional councils, and considers this more democratic," Talabani told reporters.
Sistani, who does not endorse the U.S.-led occupation but unlike radical Shi'ite clerics does not openly oppose it, ruled in June that the constitution's architects must be elected. He rarely makes public political pronouncements.
Talabani said the changes would deal with Sistani's concerns about the indirect elections, which he said had been relayed to U.S. officials earlier.
"He requested that the allies make good on the promises they made to Iraqis. He believes, correctly, that this is democracy," Talabani said, adding other changes would deal with the role of Islam in the constitution.
"There's an appendix that says Islam is the religion of the majority and it must be respected and considered a main source for the constitution," he said.