Gul was Turkey's foreign minister for the past five years until he was elected president in a decisive parliamentary vote Tuesday, despite strong objections by hard-line secularists because of his past in political Islam.
The 56-year-old took office a few hours after being elected, pledging to remain impartial, stay true to the country's secular fabric, and press on with Ankara's ambitions to integrate with the European Union.
His first task will be to approve the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party (AKP) - Gul's former party - won a landslide win in snap general elections July 22.
The pair are scheduled to meet at 4 pm (1300 GMT).
It was Gul's presidential ambitions that triggered the political crisis in April that forced the July elections.
When Gul first ran for the presidency four months ago, the opposition boycotted parliament to block his election, while the army - which has toppled four governments in as many decades - warned that it was ready to defend the secular order.
The AKP, the conservative offshoot of a now-banned Islamist party, which has disawoved its past, and says it is fully committed to the country's basic tenets, won the election comfortably, and read in the result popular approval for Gul's presidency.
But hard-line secularists suspect the party of secret ambitions to undermine the strict separation of state and religion, and fear that with Gul at the presidency, and the AKP in all the top posts, the way toward such an end has been paved.
Turkey's Western allies rushed to congratulate Gul after his election, saying they hope he will further improve Ankara's ties with other countries, and help keep the country's democracy reforms on track.
The European Union said it hopes Gul's presidency will help advance Ankara's troubled accession talks with the 27-nation bloc, which began in 2005 during Gul's tenure as foreign minister.
This "provides an opportunity to give fresh, immediate, and positive impetus to the accession process to the European Union through progress in a number of key areas," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.
Turkey's troubled membership talks were partially frozen for its refusal to meet EU demands to grant trade privileges to Cyprus, which it does not recognize.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President George W. Bush, Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, and Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik were among the first to congratulate Gul.
There were words of caution at home, with newspapers urging Gul to uphold his pledge to stay true to secularism if he wants to bridge rifts in a society deeply divided over his Islamist past.
"Mr. Gul, do not ever forget this oath," bannered the liberal daily Radikal, referring to the presidential oath, enshrined in the constitution, that Gul took after his election.
"A major and historic duty awaits President Abdullah Gul," the mass-circulation Hurriyet said. "That is: to turn the social damage and trauma that his election caused into a historical 'advantage.'
"In other words, he must persuade people whose loyalty to secularism comes before anything else that he is just as loyal to that principle as they are," the newspaper said, adding that the new president would be kept under close scrutiny, particularly by secular forces.
Several newspapers read the absence of Turkey's top generals and senior members of the judiciary from Gul's swearing-in ceremony as an ominous sign of trouble to come.
"This signifies more than just resentment. It is a sign of tension," Vatan said. "There is neither harmony nor contentment at the top of the state. How and when that will be remedied depends on Gul and his policies."
© 2007 Agence France-Presse
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