[JURIST] AP is reporting that a Sunni member of Iraq's constitutional committee [official website] has said that he doubts that a deal can be reached on an Iraqi constitution [JURIST news archive] "in the next few hours." As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, Shiite and Kurdish negotiators have indicated that they have agreed on a draft, but Sunni negotiators have not yet signed on to that agreement. The committee faces a midnight deadline to submit the draft constitution to Iraq's National Assembly.

12:04 PM ET -- According to coverage of Al-Iraqia TV reports from the Baghdad-based Iraq the Model weblog, Iraqi politicians have said that they expect the draft constitution to be easily approved by the National Assembly, despite Sunni reservations about the role of federalism [JURIST report] in the charter. Al-Iraqia TV is also reporting that there has been an agreement about the role of Islam - no laws that are against widely agreed upon Islamic values may be issued.