constitution: 宪法

伊拉克过渡议会议长哈桑尼8月26日凌晨宣布，把讨论伊拉克新宪法草案的时间再延长一天。美联社指出，这是伊拉克为了争取逊尼派支持新宪法草案所做出的第四次努力，也是第三次延长最后期限。不过哈桑尼指出，如果26日各方仍然不能达成一致，新宪法草案将完全绕过过渡议会，直接于10月15日交付全民公决。外电报道如下：

The speaker of Iraq's parliament announced a one-day extension early Friday in talks on the new constitution - a fourth attempt to win Sunni Arab approval. But he said that if no agreement is reached, the document would bypass parliament and be decided in an Oct. 15 referendum.

Shiite leaders signaled they had lost patience with protracted negotiating and wanted to refer the draft approved by them and the Kurds last Monday to the electorate. With repeated missed deadlines and no sign of compromise, a process designed to bring the country's disparate ethnic, cultural and religious groups closer together appeared instead to be pushing them further apart.

文中的"Constitution"means (a written document which forms) the set of political principles by which a state or organizations is governed, esp. in relation to the rights of the people it governs. 意思是"宪法；章程"。如：Britain has no written constitution.（英国没有成文宪法。）又如：The Constitution of the United States says that there must be a presidential election every four years.（美国宪法规定每四年进行一次总统选举。）