Rice 's remarks on Iraq constitution referendum results

While selection process of the votes to approve the Iraqi constitution were still ongoing, the US secretary of state Condaleezza Rice told journalists in London that the Iraqis seem to have approved the constitution.

This, however, raised the anger of certain Iraqi Sunni leaders who accused her of pressuring the Iraqi officials to play with the result. This, in turn, pushed Rice to say later that the final result is not known yet, but voting "yes" will help the change of the track of the matter against what she called rebel operations which pushed Iraq into the edge of a civil war.

For his part, US President George W. Bush commended participation in the referendum about the Iraqi constitution, describing the voting operation as a "very positive day for the Iraqis."

In a statement in the White House, Bush said that preliminary indicators show that the percentage of participation was more important than the elections of January this year.

Also in the political field, the office of the Iraqi president Jalal al-Talibani said that the parliamentary elections will be held on December 15th.