BAGHDAD — On the podium of a sweltering hotel ballroom recently, Sunni tribal leader Ahmed abu Risha stood alongside Interior Minister Jawad Bolani, a Shiite. Next to Bolani was a prominent Sunni religious leader, who stood beside a well-known Shiite human rights campaigner.

So it went, as Sunni and Shiite Muslims lined up together to announce the birth of a new political movement, the Iraqi Unity Alliance, which will run in elections planned for January on a platform of, yes, unity.

Periodically, a tribesman in the audience stood up and shouted slogans in support of the alliance's theme. "Salute Iraq!" he cried, to murmurs of approval from the crowd. "God protect Iraq!"

As the election season gets under way, a new sense of nationalism is emerging to challenge the raw sectarianism that plunged Iraq into conflict a few years ago. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has led the way by recasting himself as a secularist and launching his State of Law coalition, which has reached out to Sunnis. But he will face tough competition for the votes of those who want to move past identity politics.

Another coalition is due to be launched, by Shiite secularist former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Sunni leader Saleh Mutlak.

"We are sick and tired of talking about Sunni and Shiite alliances," said Dhia Shakarchi, a prominent Shiite commentator who has joined the Unity Alliance. "We are Iraqis, and we care only about the interests of our country."

That sense of unity between Sunni and Shiite Arabs, however, is still fragile. And it may not extend to the north, where ethnic Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens are all vying for power.

Even the Sunni extremist group al-Qaida in Iraq appears to have recognized the new mood, shifting its tactics from the bombings against mostly Shiite mosques and markets that were aimed at reigniting sectarian strife. Instead, it is targeting the Iraqi state, with devastating attacks such as the one last week at the Ministry of Justice and the Baghdad provincial government headquarters.

U.S. officials say they believe al-Qaida in Iraq, whose affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for those attacks, has given up trying to provoke a new sectarian war because the strategy isn't working.

"I don't see anywhere near the attacks we've had previously on the population itself to foment sectarian violence, because I think al-Qaida realizes that the population has no desire to go back to sectarian violence," said Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Lanza, a U.S. military spokesman.

Rather, he said, attacks on government institutions are intended to undermine faith in the state itself, and destroy the spirit of national unity that is taking shape, as well as to derail the forthcoming elections.

On the streets, ordinary Iraqis vow they will never allow a return to the days of 2005-07, when Sunnis and Shiites were slaughtering one another and neighborhoods were polarized along sectarian lines.

Dhia abu Mohammed, 42, displays photographs of his three brothers, slain by Sunni militants in 2005, prominently over the doorway of his tea shop on the Tigris River. Although he acknowledges having felt a sense of satisfaction when Shiite death squads began targeting Sunnis at the time, those feelings have faded along with the photos.

"Enough Sunni and Shiite. Iraqis have learned their lesson and those days will never come back," said Mohammed, who plans to vote for al-Maliki because of the role he believes the Iraqi leader has played in helping end the sectarian war. "I will vote for a just man, a wise man, and I don't care if he is Shiite, Sunni or Kurdish."

But efforts to truly declare the death of sectarianism still face serious psychological and institutional hurdles. Sunnis largely boycotted the national elections in 2005, and jobs in ministries and government departments were divvied up along sectarian lines, mostly to Shiites and Kurds.

That fueled a sense of resentment and exclusion among Sunnis.

Shiites seeking to preserve their privileges and Sunnis seeking to reassert themselves may have a hard time voting for candidates from the opposite sect, said Nabil Mohammed Salim, head of the strategic studies department at Baghdad University. Salim is affiliated with the Iraqi National Front, another new, mostly Sunni bloc campaigning on nationalist principles.

"It's a problem for both Sunnis and Shiites. It's not easy for any Sunni to vote for a Shiite or for a Shiite to vote for a Sunni," he said.