President-elect Mohamed Morsi pushed ahead yesterday with selecting a government of mostly technocrats amid delicate negotiations with the ruling military on its future powers, aides said.

Egypt’s first civilian president, and its first elected leader since an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak early last year, went straight to work after he was declared the election winner on Sunday, a senior aide said.

Following a riveting and deeply polarising contest against former Mubarak premier Ahmed Shafiq, the Islamist must now try to live up to campaign pledges he undertook to gain the support of pro-democracy groups in defeating Shafiq.

The former senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood will try to select a government that will be inclusive of the other political forces that reluctantly supported him against Shafiq.

Mr Morsi, who resigned from the Brotherhood after his win, also has to contend with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which will retain broad powers even after it formally transfers control at the end of June.

On Monday, he met Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of SCAF, which took power after president Hosni Mubarak resigned early last year following a popular uprising.

After the country’s top court declared the Islamist-dominated parliament to be null earlier this month, the military assumed legislative powers as well and will dominate a powerful national security council headed by Mr Morsi.

“All these details are on the table for discussion,” said a senior aide to the president-elect yesterday.

“Nothing has been settled yet, and no decision has been taken.”

The military also reserves the right to appoint a new constituent assembly should the one elected by parliament be disbanded by a acourt decision expected on September 1.