Afghans agree on new constitution

Just a day after warning the summit was heading to humiliating failure, council chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddedi told the 502-delegates meeting under a giant tent in the Afghan capital that last-ditch diplomacy secured a comprehensive deal.

"We are very happy that all the members of the loya jirga have reached a very successful agreement," Mujaddedi said.

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He gave no details of how an impasse over whether to grant official status to minority languages, an issue which brought the meeting close to collapse, had been solved.

But he said a new draft of the document would be distributed to the delegates shortly and that US-backed President Hamid Karzai would arrive later Sunday to wind up the convention.

The convention began on Dec. 14 with delegates taking up a 160-article draft constitution presented by Karzai's government in November.

The final accord is expected to give Karzai the strong presidential system he had been insisting on.

Karzai has argued strongly for a dominant chief executive to hold the country together as it rebuilds and reconciles after more than two decades of war. He said he wouldn't run if he didn't get his way.

US and UN officials worked tirelessly to broker a backroom agreement to bolster a peace process begun after the ouster of the Taliban two years ago.