The Muslim Scholars Association, the most influential Sunni religious group in Iraq, refused Wednesday to participate in drafting the country's permanent constitution, a prior task for the National Assembly (NA) elected last Sunday.

"We cannot participate in the formulating of a constitution under the occupation," Mohammed Bashar Fadhi, the group's spokesman told a press conference.

"The Americans try to establish sectarianism in the constitution, and the Association would not accept division
according to the sectarian shares," he stressed.

"We deeply believe that the constitution written under the occupation would be a reflection of the State Administration Law, which we had already totally rejected, and we would not participate in writing the constitution whatever it costs us," he added.

The Association which boycotted Sunday's elections issued a statement Wednesday describing the elections as incomplete in legitimacy because a big part of the Iraqis did not participate in the elections.

Sunday's voting witnessed an unexpected enthusiasm of participation, especially in the Kurdish region in the north and
the Shiite populated provinces in central south, but the turnout in the Sunni Arab areas appeared much lower.

However, the spokesman emphasized that "the Association would not deny the legitimacy of the future government."

"The interim government is a result of the occupation and did not have the legitimacy or respect of the people of Iraq. But after the elections, the future government would not be like the interim one. Nevertheless, it is the choice of a large number of the Iraqi people who trusted those representatives," "We doubt the size of the participation, but we could not ignore the feelings of our people and therefore we could not treat the future government like the interim one which lacked totally legitimacy. The future government has at least part of the legitimacy earned from the people that accepted to elect it under the occupation and gave up the right to object to the elections," he added.

In an effort to patch up differences over the political process, the interim Iraqi government has offered a reconciliatory dialogue among all ethnic and religious groups after the country's first multi-party vote in nearly half a century.