Abdullah Gul, a strong advocate of Turkish European ambitions and close U.S. ties, was installed as prime minister on Saturday as his party announced sweeping plans for economic and social reform to meet EU standards.
Gul takes office as Turkey's economy is poised between recovery and relapse and it is pushing hard to win a date for European Union entry talks at an EU December summit.
"It's time to start work. From this hour onward it's time to mobilise and work night and day to solve the problems of our people," a smiling Gul said after President Ahmet Necdet Sezer invited him to form a government.
"The government will be ready by Monday," he said.
Gul was the favourite of financial markets fearful for the future of a $16 billion IMF crisis pact.
To the United States, which may soon look to him for use of air bases in any attack on neighbouring Iraq, he is also a familiar face. Though a strong figure in his own right, he will inevitably stand somewhat in the shadow of the charismatic Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Tayyip Erdogan, who chose him.
A conviction for Islamist sedition disqualified Erdogan from November 3 polls that devastated established parties blamed for economic crisis and graft and gave the one-year-old AKP a huge majority. Absent from parliament, he cannot be prime minister.
Erdogan, however, made his leading role abundantly clear by announcing a programme of economic and social reform at a news conference held as Gul visited the Presidential palace.
"We are building a new world and this new world will bring the East and West together in Turkey," Erdogan declared.
The AKP grew from the moderate wing of a now banned Islamist party.