Baghdad, Iraq ? Iraq’s U.S. administrator suggested Monday he would block any move by Iraqi leaders to make Islamic law the backbone of an interim constitution, which women’s groups fear could threaten their rights. Roadside bombs killed two more American soldiers.

During a visit to a women’s center in Karbala, administrator Paul Bremer said the current draft of the interim constitution, due to take effect at the end of this month, would make Islam the state religion and “a source of inspiration for the law,” but not the main source for that law.

However, Mohsen Abdel-Hamid, the current president of the Iraqi Governing Council and a Sunni Muslim hard-liner, has proposed making Islamic law the “principal basis” of legislation.

Iraqi women’s groups fear that could cost them the rights they have under Iraq’s longtime secular system, especially in such areas as divorce.

Bremer was asked what would happen if Iraqi leaders wrote into the interim charter that Islamic sharia law is the principal basis of legislation. “Our position is clear,” Bremer replied. “It can’t be law until I sign it.”

Bremer must sign all measures passed by the 25-member council before they can become law. Iraq’s powerful Shiite clergy, however, wants the interim constitution to be approved by an elected legislature. Under U.S. plans, a permanent constitution would not be drawn up and voted on by the Iraqi people until 2005.

Bremer used the inauguration ceremony at a women’s center in the southern city of Karbala to argue for more than “token” women’s representation in the transitional government due to take power June 30.

In a speech to about 100 women, most dressed in flowing black abayas and some with tattooed chins, Bremer cited a 2003 United Nations report that found that productivity in Arab countries was being strangled because women had been kept out of the work force. Bremer suggested that women’s participation did not run counter to Muslim values.

“Women who can read and write and understand mathematics are not prevented from being good mothers. Quite the opposite,” Bremer told the gathering. “No son is better off because his mother and sisters cannot read.”

Earlier this month, 45 members of the House of Representatives signed a letter to President Bush urging him to preserve women’s rights in Iraq.

U.S. leverage with the Iraqis will decline, however, after the U.S.-led coalition returns sovereignty to an Iraqi administration at the end of June.

The United States also hopes to hand over more responsibility for internal security to U.S.-trained Iraqi forces, which could reduce American casualties as the U.S. presidential election approaches.