Tunisia's moderate Islamist party has begun talks to form an interim unity government with a coalition of liberal rivals, after preliminary election results showed the group winning at least 40 percent of the vote.

Partial tallies released Tuesday support the Ennahdha party's claim that it has won the most seats in a 217-member assembly. Its chief liberal foe, the Progressive Democratic Party, failed to win much support.

The New York Times reports that Ennahdha is discussing a coalition with two other liberal parties – the Congress for the Republic and the Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties, known by its Arabic name Ettakatol.

Campaign manager Abdel Hamid Jelassi says Ennahdha “will not shut anyone out” of its consultation. He promised a broad-based coalition that could include rival parties, civil society groups and unions.

Party leaders hailed the budding Islamist-liberal alliance as an inclusive model for countries emerging from the chaos of the Arab Spring.

The Tunisian electoral commission said Ennahdha so far has secured 24 out of 57 seats, or about 42 percent of the assembly. The results cover five polling districts – including the key cities of Sousse and Sfax – as well as half of the 18 seats reserved for expatriate representatives.

The group's main rivals have acknowledged the assembly will be dominated by Ennahdha, whose officials say their interim government will focus on economic development and internal security, not moral issues.

During the campaign, Ennahdha candidates cited as a model the secular, pluralist democracy in Turkey, whose ruling party also has an Islamic identity.

The newly elected assembly is expected to appoint the interim government and spend a year writing a constitution before elections are held for a parliament and a permanent government.

Election observers predict that women could capture nearly one third of the seats in the constituent assembly, a far larger proportion than in any Arab country.

Some are concerned Ennahdha could reverse the progress in women's rights that has been made in Tunisia. But party officials have repeatedly pledged to promote equal opportunities and the freedom to choose or reject Islamic dress like the head scarf.

The landmark election, widely considered free and fair, is the first to emerge from the Arab Spring, which has seen despotic governments topple across North Africa and the Middle East. The vote came a little more than nine months after Tunisians overthrew longtime dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

After Sunday's historic poll, U.S. President Barack Obama told Tunisians they had “changed the course of history” and “inspired the world.”