Tunisian politicians are negotiating the creation of a council to replace or oversee the interim government, several sources said today after days of street protests demanding that the cabinet resign.
The sources said the council would be tasked with protecting the revolution that toppled veteran president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali this month, amid widespread complaints that former members of the ruling party are trying to cling on to power.
The council is expected to include respected opposition politician Ahmed Mestiri, whom a range of opposition politicians and former members of the ruling RCD believe they can work with.
The news came as the Tunisian army general who refused to support Ben Ali's crackdown on protesters warned that a political vacuum could bring back dictatorship.
"Our revolution is your revolution. The revolution of the youth could be lost and could be exploited by those who call for a vacuum," general Rashid Ammar told crowds outside the prime minister's office, where protesters have demanded that prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi quit.
"The army will protect the revolution," he said.
Gen Ammar's decision to withdraw support from Ben Ali is widely seen as a turning point that eventually forced him to leave the country on January 14th after weeks of popular protests.
In Washington, the State Department said it had sent its top diplomat for the Middle East to Tunisia for talks on the political crisis.
A cabinet reshuffle is expected within the next few days to fill ministries vacated by a slew of resignations, though this could include changes to other portfolios, education minister Tayeb Baccouche said.
"As part of the consultations, there is expected to be a reshuffle in the coming days," he said.
Five ministers have resigned since the interim cabinet was announced last week, including three representatives of the powerful labour union and one opposition leader.
Earlier, police fired teargas canisters to disperse protesters in Tunis. The protesters, mostly from marginalised rural areas who had camped out overnight at the prime minister's office, broke windows at the nearby finance ministry building.
"Are they afraid the government will really be shaken? It seems that Ben Ali's regime is back," said demonstrator Kamal Ashour.
Police put under house arrest Abdelwahhab Abdalla, the Ben Ali political adviser in charge of monitoring the media, state television said. The interim government said last week 33 members of Ben Ali's family had been arrested. Yesterday, police arrested two confidants of Ben Ali.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy said France, the former colonial power, would offer emergency aid to Tunisia as it grapples with a transition to a new government. He acknowledged criticism of Paris's past support for Ben Ali.
"There was a desperation, a suffering, a feeling of suffocation which, we have to admit, we did not properly assess," he said at a Paris news conference.
Mr Sarkozy said France would hunt down wealth plundered during Ben Ali's time in power and return it to Tunisians, and the Paris prosecutor said later it had opened a preliminary investigation into his French assets.
Reuters