Iraq's parliament gave negotiators an extra week last night to complete a draft constitution after weeks of intensive talks failed to bridge sectarian and ethnic rifts.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari (centre) discusses the new constitution with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (right) and Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim at the prime minister's office in Baghdad
Shia, Sunni and Kurdish leaders now have seven more days to agree the extent regions can have autonomy from Baghdad and how they will share oil and resources.
If they fail, parliament will again face a dissolution crisis and the prospect of new elections in an atmosphere poisoned by sectarian and ethnic strife.
The delay was a setback to hopes, in Washington as well as Baghdad, that a timely accord would send a signal that might sap support for the Sunni Arab insurgency.
The refusal by leaders of the Sunni minority to grant wide autonomy - and control of oil income - to the southern Shia majority appeared to break any accord.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shia Islamist, said the sticking points had been federalism and sharing out revenues.
Kurdish autonomy, secured de facto after the 1991 Gulf War, has been less of an issue, but other groups are wary of demands from some Kurds to push for a possibility of outright secession.
Just an hour before parliament would have been forced to recognise at midnight that it had failed to draft a constitution by August 15th and so must face dissolution under a US-backed interim law, negotiators went to the chamber to ask for 10 more days.
The National Assembly voted unanimously for a motion from the speaker to grant just a week, to August 22nd. It was 23.40pm local time when the vote was passed.