The announcement yesterday of the new Iraqi President and the naming of a 26-man Cabinet to serve under the new interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, confounds the critics almost willing chaos at the end of the month. After days of difficult talks, brinkmanship and skilful behind-the-scenes lobbying, Iraqis of all factions, tribes and religious affiliation have united in the interests of a stable, independent and democratic country. Their readiness to compromise is of genuine significance. For the first time since the end of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, Iraqis can look forward realistically to a new political order. It is an achievement that should not be underrated in Iraq, the wider Muslim world or in America itself.

Ghazi al-Yawer, the civil engineer educated in the US and Saudi Arabia, was not the first choice of the US and UN for the largely ceremonial presidency. They wanted Adnan Pachachi, the 81-year-old former Foreign Minister who has served on the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) with courage and distinction. Difficult, and they were destined to be difficult, negotiations threatened to scuttle the agreement already reached on the government’s composition. But when Mr Pachachi declined to serve, Washington accepted a man who has recently been sharply critical of the handover plan. In so doing, it has boosted the credibility of the new government. Sheikh al-Yawer, Sunni head of one of Iraq’s most powerful tribes, is not and cannot be portrayed as a US stooge. Nor is he beholden to any faction.

In return, the IGC has also made significant concessions. Although most members were lobbying to be included, only two were chosen for the Cabinet of technocrats. But the council agreed to give them time and opportunity to prepare for government on July 1 by resigning en masse. One of the few to stay on, the ethnic Kurdish Foreign Minister, must now work to secure international acceptance for the new government.Some of the credit for the landmark agreement must go to Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy charged with picking the interim administration. A man of tact, patience and political agility who had proved his competence in Afghanistan, he managed to strike the right ethnic and regional balance while also finding competent men neither compromised by the past nor prejudiced against the present realities of the US presence.

The overwhelming challenge of the interim government, even before it assumes office formally next month, is security. Yesterday a huge explosion tore through the offices of one of the pro-US Kurdish parties and caused many casualties. At the same time a suicide bomber killed 11 Iraqis outside a US base north of Baghdad. In all, there were some seven violent attacks attempting to disrupt the formation of a new administration. There will, alas, be more attacks of this kind before the moment when Sheikh al-Yawer, Mr Allawi and their team assume authority.

For the foreseeable future, many coalition troops will be needed to fight the insurgency. Arguments about their command and strength levels may be central to coalition support within the UN Security Council; but for now they are merely academic. Unless the violence subsides, reconstruction can be accelerated and ordinary Iraqis feel safer on the streets, the new Cabinet will struggle to obtain the respect it deserves.

The Shia leadership knows this; Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the senior cleric in the south, has been careful to say nothing to prejudice Mr Allawi and Sheikh al-Yawer, whose powers he may hope to inherit after elections. Even the opportunistic cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr has, for the moment, held his militias in check in Najaf. Iraqis are hoping, with some reason, that the corner has been turned.