CONSTITUTIONAL PROGRESS

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 11 — In one of its first major decisions, Iraq's interim government appointed a 25-member team today to draw up a procedure to produce a new constitution. Ibrahim Jafari, president of the Iraqi Governing Council, said at a news conference that the committee would not write the constitution itself, but rather devise the mechanism by which it would be drafted.

"The task of the constitutional committee is to move with all segments of society to decide on the best mechanism for writing the draft of the constitution," Mr. Jafari said.

A new constitution is seen as a cornerstone of the democratic Iraq that American leaders overseeing the occupation here are trying to bring about. The process, ultimately expected to lead to democratic elections, is part of the effort under way here to erase a history of dictatorship and misrule and begin a tradition of representative government.