By Nick Thorpe BBC correspondent in Ankara

While much of Turkey celebrated or reeled from the shock at the landslide victory of the Justice and Development (AK) party in Sunday's election, General Hilmi Ozkok was quietly boarding a plane.

The head of the Turkish armed forces was on his way to Washington for a week of high-level meetings with American civilian and military officials ahead of a possible US-led war in Iraq.

What the moderate Islamists represent in Turkey is not a marginal or fringe ideology of extremism

Cenghis Candar Political commentator

Iraq was not an issue in this election. Almost all Turks oppose conflict with the country's big eastern neighbour.

But the election of a party with strong Islamic roots is likely to provoke questions in the West about what part Turkey may play.

"What the moderate Islamists represent in Turkey is not a marginal or fringe ideology of extremism," said Cenghis Candar, a respected Turkish commentator on the Middle East.

"They're moving towards the political centre."

Mr Candar is also hopeful about the effect of the AK party's victory on the wider region.

"In a county like Turkey, a candidate member of the EU and Nato member, a country with a very definite European vocation, it's good to have this kind of Islamic government," he said.

Multi-religious continent

"It would constitute a real role model for the whole Islamic world, and it would prove to the Europeans that Europe can really be a multi-religious democratic continent composed of regimes of different colours and natures based upon the fundamental principles of democracy."

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That is a view likely to be shared in other European countries where many Muslims live.

If Iraq was little discussed in this election, the European Union was.

Turkey has been trying to join the EU since 1963, but only won acceptance as a candidate in 1999.

In his first comments since the electoral victory of his party, AK party leader Tayyip Erdogan made clear that EU membership was his top priority.

There is no contradiction with his party's strong Islamic identity, at least on the Turkish side.

Turkish Muslims aspire to the European norms of human rights and democracy in an attempt to win what they see as religious freedoms denied them under current laws.

Headscarves

Turkey's fiercely secular state forbids the wearing of headscarves by women in public buildings, including schools and law courts.

A headscarf case brought by two Turkish women is due to be heard later this month by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Mr Erdogan has said that the right to wear headscarves is not a priority in his new government, in contrast to previous Islamist parties which have fought on the issue in Turkey.

On Monday he told reporters in Ankara that he had already accepted an invitation to visit Greece within 10 days to discuss EU issues with Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis.

He will travel on to other EU capitals in the hope of winning a date for the EU membership negotiations to start - for which Greek support could help.

Any sign of Greek/Turkish rapprochement is always welcomed by the international community.

The two men can also be expected to discuss the divided island of Cyprus - long a bone of contention between the two countries.