The Turkish parliament on Tuesday elected Abdullah Gul, foreign minister, as the secular country's first president with an Islamist background.

The election of Mr Gul, the candidate of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) which has its roots in political Islam and has ruled Turkey for the past five years, follows a protracted political crisis over his nomination.

The party's previous attempt at electing him to the largely ceremonial but still influential post back in April provoked an angry response from Turkey's fiercely secular military.

It expressed fears that Mr Gul, whose wife wears a headscarf - Islamic headgear that is banned in official buildings - would undermine the country's secular system. In a rare rebuff of the generals, the government responded by calling early elections that saw the AKP returned to power with an increased majority.

After that apparent show of public support for the government, the armed forces, which have staged four coups since 1960, appeared to accept that Mr Gul would become president.

As recently as Monday however, Turkey's military chief General Yasar Buyukanit announced that he saw 'insidious forces' at work seeking to undermine Turkey's secular democracy, and warned that the Turkish military would not 'stand by'.

Despite such rhetoric, and the fears of some sections of the secularist elite that the government harbours a long-term Islamist agenda, many observers expect Mr Gul, who has vowed to uphold the secular order, to display the same pragmatism he exhibited as foreign minister.

"There's nothing really abnormal in the military's response. They've accepted his election, now we'll see what happens," said Oral Calislar, a columnist on the influential Cumhuriyet daily, who lamented the amount of attention given to Mrs Gul and her wearing of a traditional Islamic headscarf. "It's a sensitive issue in Turkey, but it's still a pity that we are left discussing this. He will be president, we should be looking at him," he said.

He noted that Mr Gul had already indicated that his wife may not play a significant role in public life.

Although hailing from a background in radical Islamic politics for which he served time in prison following Turkey's last military coup in 1980, the past decade has seen him establish a reputation as a moderate.

Having forced the break up of a previous more radical Islamic party in 2001, Mr Gul - who holds a doctorate in economics, established the AKP, together with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the current prime minister - which swept to power a year later.

Having served briefly as prime minister, Mr Gul was subsequently appointed foreign minister. In that role he established himself as a champion of Turkey's bid for European Union membership and proved a shrewd politician and a well- respected diplomat.