Several thousand people demonstrated on Saturday on the 40th day of mourning after the murder of opposition leader Chokri Belaid, a critic of the ruling Islamists whose death plunged Tunisia into turmoil. People began gathering in the cemetery in southern Tunis where Belaid is buried. He was gunned down outside his home on February 6 in a killing blamed by the authorities on radical Islamists, denying any involvement. Several arrests in the case have been made, but the suspected killer remains at large.

Ali Larayedh became Tunisia's new Islamist premier on Thursday, taking over from his predecessor Hamadi Jebali and faced with the task of ending a political and economic crisis gripping the country. Speaking at the swearing in ceremony at the prime minister's office, Larayedh said his cabinet would listen to "the concerns of the nation and the people."

Tunisia's outgoing premier was to hand power on Thursday to fellow Islamist Ali Larayedh, who takes on the mammoth task of bringing to an end the political and economic crisis gripping the country. Larayedh was to formally assume the post from Hamadi Jebali at 1500 GMT, a day after winning parliament's approval for his new government, with Thursday's funeral of a street vendor who burnt himself to death serving as a stark reminder of the problems it faces.

Prime minister-designate Ali Larayedh on Thursday was to hold tense, last-minute negotiations on forming a new coalition government to defuse Tunisia's political crisis. With less than 48 hours before a constitutional deadline, Larayedh, an Islamist and the outgoing administration's interior minister, left open the possibility of failure as he prepared to meet party leaders. "We have held talks with the parties individually and then in groups. Now we are going to discuss the makeup of the government. Much of it is agreed but some points remain," he told Mosaique FM radio.