Iraq looking for good ties with Turkey

Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), was responding to a question about concerns voiced by Turkey about the basic law, which was officially signed on Monday.

"We continue to behave in a way not to cause any fear with them and with other countries neighbouring Iraq," Hakim told a news conference. "We are working and looking forward to having a good relation with them to build a new Iraq," the council member said at SCIRI’s headquarters in Baghdad.

Hakim said the Governing Council’s 25 members, who put aside their own concerns to sign the temporary constitution, hoped to solve all the outstanding problems with the text. "We are trying to find solutions to all the problems through any kind of procedure we can take in the future," said Hakim, who held the council’s rotating presidency in December, without being more specific.

Ankara said on Monday it was unhappy with Iraq’s constitution and warned it would pave the way for more instability in the neighbouring country, Anatolia news agency reported.