Members of Iraq's constitutional committee have agreed to abide by a deadline of August 15 to produce a draft document, in spite of glaring outstanding differences over the role of Islam in the country's basic law and the future shape of the Iraqi state.

Under mounting US pressure for a “national compact”, the main Shia, Sunni and Kurdish groupings on the 71-member committee apparently decided that their differences would not be any easier to overcome with more time.