Parliament signs off constitution

On the eve of the parliament meeting, rebels ambushed and killed a Kurdish MP and wounded another north of Baghdad while another 11 Iraqis lost their lives in attacks yesterday.

"We are handing the draft over to the UN," deputy parliamentary speaker Hussein Sharistani said after reading out five articles in the constitution that have been amended following talks between the ruling Shias and Kurds and the minority Sunni Arabs.

The amendments to the text, adopted by parliament in late August, were agreed to following informal talks in an attempt to bring on board the disenchanted Sunni Arab minority which had objected to several key provisions.

The draft will now be sent to the UN representatives tasked with printing five million copies -- in Arabic and Kurdish -- for distribution to the public ahead of the referendum.

Meanwhile, Kurdish MP Fares Naser Hussein was killed and his colleague Hayder Kasim Shenshu wounded in the attack in which their driver and a bodyguard also died, an interior ministry official said.

The ambush took place near Mushahadah, some 30km north of the capital.

Another 11 Iraqis, including eight members of the security forces, were killed in attacks on Sunday, officials said.

On Saturday, a series of anti-Shia attacks continued with a car bomb ripping through a crowded market in a predominantly Shia suburb of Baghdad, killing 30 people and wounding 38 others.

A US soldier was killed by a bomb explosion Saturday near Al Asad in western Iraq, the US military said.