Baghdad, Iraq ? Sunni Arabs complained Saturday they were being sidelined in talks on the new constitution only two days before the deadline and warned that their community will reject the document if it is submitted to parliament without Sunni consent.

“They will surprise us in the final hour,” Saleh al-Mutlaq, one of four main Sunni negotiators, told The Associated Press. “We will reject it and the people will be angry, the street will be angry and as a result we will be back to square one.”

But a Shiite politician, Khaled al-Attiyah, was upbeat and said the negotiations were in the final stage. He said the Shiites submitted a new proposal on the distribution of Iraq’s oil wealth, one of the remaining obstacles to a deal by the Monday night deadline.

Sunni Arabs also object to demands by Kurds and the largest Shiite party for a federal state, and oppose a major role for Shiite clergy in Najaf.

On Saturday, it appeared that only Kurds and Shiites were negotiating. Sunni Arabs were not present at the deliberations.

Protesters rally against federalism in the new Iraqi constitution Saturday in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. Talks on Iraq's new constitution have stalled over the role of Islam and the distribution of the country's oil wealth, negotiators said Saturday.

Another principal Sunni negotiator, Ayad al-Samarai, said Sunnis agreed with the Kurds and Shiites on some unspecified points.

He added: “Concerning federalism, we are still holding to our position, which is that it be postponed until after the general elections, and we refused to accept it in the constitution at this time.”

Al-Samarai said the Sunnis accepted the existence of the Kurdish self-ruled region, established in 1991, but did not want the system duplicated elsewhere as long as foreign troops remain in Iraq.

Al-Mutlaq alleged that the Americans, Shiites and Kurds were cutting deals and “we have no idea what is going on.” He complained that Sunni negotiators were being sidelined “after we convinced the (Sunni) people to take part in the political process through mosque preachers, who used to condemn such participation.”

Shiites and Kurds have enough seats in the 275-member parliament to push through a constitution without Sunni approval, but doing so would risk a backlash from the community at the forefront of the insurgency.

Once the constitution is approved by parliament, it will go to the voters in a national referendum Oct. 15. However, if two-thirds of the voters in three of the 18 provinces reject the constitution, it will be defeated.

Sunni Arabs make up about 20 percent of the national population.