Baghdad, Iraq ? Iraqi negotiators finished the new constitution Sunday and referred it to the voters but without the endorsement of Sunni Arabs, a major setback for the U.S. strategy to lure Sunnis away from the insurgency and hasten the day U.S. troops can go home.

The absence of Sunni Arab endorsement, after more than two months of intensive negotiations, raised fears of more violence and set the stage for a bitter political fight ahead of an Oct. 15 nationwide referendum on the document.

A political battle along religious and ethnic lines threatened to sharpen communal divisions at a time when relations among the Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds appear to be worsening.

Sunni negotiators delivered their rejection in a joint statement shortly after the draft was submitted to parliament. They branded the final version as “illegitimate” and asked the Arab League, the United Nations and “international organizations” to intervene against the document.

Intervention is unlikely, however, and no further amendments to the draft are possible under the law, said a legal expert on the drafting committee, Hussein Addab.

“I think if this constitution passes as it is, it will worsen everything in the country,” said Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni negotiator.

A female member of Iraq's constitution drafting committee browses over the copy of the draft constitution Sunday during their meeting.

President Bush expressed disappointment that the Sunnis did not sign on but pinned his hopes on the referendum, saying it was a chance for Iraqis to “set the foundation for a permanent Iraqi government.”

But the depth of disillusionment over the charter in the Sunni establishment extended beyond the 15 negotiators, who were appointed to the constitutional committee in June under U.S. pressure.

The country’s Sunni vice president, Ghazi al-Yawer, did not show up at a Sunday ceremony marking completion of the document. When President Jalal Talabani said that al-Yawer was ill, senior government officials including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi howled with laughter.

“The constitution is left to our people to approve or reject it,” said Talabani, a Kurd. “I hope that our people will accept it despite some flaws.”

A top Sunni who did attend the ceremony, parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani, said he thought the final document contained “too much religion” and too little protection of womens’ rights.

Despite last-minute concessions from the majority Shiites and Kurds, the Sunnis said the document threatened the unity of Iraq and its place in the Arab world.

Ibrahim al-Shammari, spokesman of a leading insurgent group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, said on Al-Jazeera television that the constitution “drafted under the supervision of the occupiers” would divide Iraq and benefit Israel.

Major deal-breaker issues included federalism, Iraq’s identity in the Arab world and references to Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated Baath Party.

The parliament speaker, who was not part of the Sunni negotiating team, said the Shiites and Kurds should have been more accommodating to the minority. The Shiite-Kurdish bloc won 221 of the 275 National Assembly seats because many Sunnis boycotted the Jan. 30 election.

“I think to them, they won the election … so it is an opportunity to them to get whatever they want,” al-Hassani told reporters. “If I was in their camp, I would have been more generous.”

Defeat of the constitution would force new elections for a parliament that would begin the drafting process from scratch. If the constitution is approved, elections for a fully constitutional parliament will be in December.