[JURIST] A senior US State Department envoy said Tuesday after meetings with German officials that the German federal experience could provide a useful model for a permanent Iraqi constitution. Citing the German structure of multiple laender [maps and profiles] with considerable autonomy united in a federal union, Richard Jones [archived State Department profile], former US ambassador to Lebanon and now US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's top advisor on Iraq, suggested that the German arrangement could provide the basis for a stable Iraqi nation state with different regions under a single federal government. The new Iraqi National Assembly under the leadership of a government the formation of which is still incomplete [JURIST report] is charged under the interim Iraqi constitution with drafting a permanent charter for Iraq by August 15, less than 4 months from now. Reuters has more.