[JURIST] Kurdish leaders insisted Tuesday that they do not plan to secede from Iraq even though they want the new Iraqi constitution [JURIST news archive] to provide the group the right to self-determination in order to protect themselves from potential future problems. The issues of self-determination, the role of Islam, federalism and the use of oil and other natural resources are among the unresolved issues [JURIST report] that prevented Iraq's constitutional committee [official website] from reaching an agreement before the August 15 deadline and the subsequent one-week extension [JURIST report] of the deadline. If an agreement on the constitution is reached by August 22, Iraqis will vote in mid-October to accept or reject the charter; this will lead to December elections for the first fully constitutional government since regime of Saddam Hussein [JURIST new archive] was overthrown in 2003. AP has more.