( AP ) - Turkey's new president, a devout Muslim who has vowed to respect the separation of Islam and state, faces his first task Wednesday - reviewing a list of possible Cabinet ministers - while under close scrutiny from secularist opponents.
President Abdullah Gul won election in a parliamentary vote on Tuesday after months of confrontation with the secular establishment. The opposition will watch for signs of bias toward the Islamic-oriented government.
The presidency, a traditional bastion of secularism, can veto legislation and official appointments.
In a sign that tension could lie ahead, top military generals did not attend Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony for the new president, a former practitioner of political Islam who later cast himself as a moderate.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an old ally, said he planned to submit his list of proposed Cabinet ministers to Gul later Wednesday for approval. The process was expected to be a formality, though Gul, the former foreign minister, can block candidates.
Media reports indicate the Cabinet of two dozen ministers is likely to be a mixture of people with Islamic and non-Islamic backgrounds.
According to reports, Gul's successor as the foreign minister is expected to be Ali Babacan, the finance minister and a close associate of Gul in the government's campaign to join the European Union. Babacan, 40, is the youngest minister in the outgoing government.
Babacan, who earned a business degree at Northwestern University, also acted as steward of economic reforms that were backed by the International Monetary Fund. The reforms helped Turkey emerge from an economic crisis and attain an average annual growth of 7 percent.
Other figures touted as possible new ministers include Ertugrul Gunay, who joined the ruling Justice and Development party after leaving the Republican People's Party, the main opposition group that help derail a presidential bid by Gul in the spring.
Bulent Arinc, Parliament's former speaker, has also been mentioned. Arinc, who co-founded the ruling party with Erdogan in 2001, is considered strongly religious and less given to compromise. Earlier this year, Arinc drew the ire of secularists by calling for the election of a "religious" president.
Local media interpreted the absence of the military brass during the swearing-in ceremony as a protest against Gul, whose earlier bid for the post was blocked by the secular opposition, which included the military and the top court.
Gul received a majority of 339 votes in a parliamentary ballot. His triumph was assured by the ruling party that won a second term in general elections last month, but Gul was careful to reach out to the many Turks who suspect he has a secret Islamic agenda.
"In democracy, which is a system of rights and liberties, secularism, one of the core principles of our republic, is as much a model that underpins freedom for different lifestyles as it is a rule of social harmony," Gul said.
Gul vowed to campaign for gender equality and the rule of law, and he said "change and diversity" were not things to be feared.
"It is imperative for our country that we carry out the political and economic reforms geared toward EU membership more resolutely. The political climate in Europe may always change," he told lawmakers.
He also praised the military as a necessary deterrent and a symbol of independence, even after the military chief, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, warned that "centers of evil" were plotting to corrode secular principles crafted nearly a century ago by Turkey's revered founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The military has ousted four governments since 1960.