BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi leaders failed to meet a key deadline yesterday to finish a new constitution, stalling over the same fundamental issues of power-sharing – including federalism, oil wealth, and Islam’s impact on women – that have bedeviled the country since Saddam Hussein’s ouster.

Just 20 minutes before midnight, parliament voted to give negotiators another seven days, until August 22, to try to draft the charter. The delay was a strong rebuff of the Bush administration’s insistence that the deadline be met, even if some issues were unresolved, to maintain political momentum and blunt Iraq’s deadly insurgency.

“We should not be hasty regarding the issues and the constitution should not be born crippled,” a Shiite, Prime Minister al-Jaafari, said after the parliament session, which lasted a bare 15 minutes. “We are keen to have an early constitution, but the constitution should be completed in all of its items.”

Mr. al-Jaafari’s statement came after an apparent deal late yesterday on all but two key issues fell apart, according to several Shiite politicians.

The Shiites said the unresolved issues were women’s rights, which is inextricably tied to Islam’s role, and the right of Kurds to eventually secede from the country. But Mr. al-Jaafari said the key stumbling blocks were distribution of oil wealth and federalism, another, broader way of stating the Kurdish autonomy issue.

The confusion over outstanding issues – as well as negotiators’ seeming inability to agree even on what items they disagreed on – left unclear whether they will now reopen talks on all issues or just focus on a few.

In Washington, Secretary of State Rice downplayed the significance of the delay and expressed confidence the Iraqis would reach consensus.

“I think we have to step back a little bit here and recognize that, yes, there was an August 15 deadline to complete the constitution. There was also a way for them to avail themselves of a few more days,” she said.

“But what that says is that they are really committed to putting together a document that they believe in, a document that can be a foundation for a free and democratic Iraq for all Iraqis, and that they’re determined to do that.”

Nevertheless, the last-minute decision to postpone the deadline raised serious questions about the ability of Iraq’s varied factions to make the necessary political compromises.

Television cameras were at the ready as parliament convened late yesterday to consider any final, undecided issues and debate the entire charter. In a sign of Washington’s close involvement, the American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, was in the hall as parliament gathered.

The American ambassador blamed the setback partly on a three-day sandstorm that prevented delegates from meeting. “We recognize that … Iraqi leaders determined that a seven-day extension was needed to resolve remaining issues and to fine-tune the language of the draft to avoid errors,” he said. “I have no doubt that Iraq will have a good draft constitution completed in the coming days.”

Even if negotiators do produce a constitution in the next week, the wide divide over issues such as federalism, oil revenues, and Islam’s role are unlikely to disappear. The majority Shiites also have a stake in federalism, hoping to create an autonomous region in the south as Kurds have in the north. Both areas are rich in oil. Minority Sunni Arabs oppose federalism, while showing some willingness to compromise. Sunni Arabs are believed the biggest supporters of the insurgency that still wracks the country, causing Washington to push hard for their demands to be addressed to lure them from the fighting.

The impasse left open the possibility that Iraq – a patchwork of Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis put together as a nation by the British after World War I – could still tumble into a civil war.

It also blunted the rapid progress toward democracy that Iraqis have accomplished so far, from the vote last January 30 that installed the nation’s first elected government to the efforts to share power among the Shiite majority, the strong Kurdish group, and the smaller Sunni Arab faction.

If agreement on a constitution is reached, however, Iraqis will vote around October 15 to accept or reject the charter, leading to more elections in December for the country’s first new government under the new constitution.

Officials had said that agreements had been reached previously on issues such as distribution of the country’s oil revenues, the country’s name, and the issue of whether Iraqis could hold dual citizenship. But Mr. al-Jaafari said oil revenues were still up for grabs. And even the name was unclear: Officials have said they were deciding on either the Republic of Iraq or the Federal Republic of Iraq.