Tunisia army in heavy fight with ex-presidential guards

Tunisian Army is fighting about 1,000 presidential security forces in the capital Tunis on Sunday, hours after the security chief of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was arrested for plotting against the country’s new.

Ousted president Ben Ali's security forces were suspected behind a wave of unrest and random shooting in different parts of the country following the collapse of the previous regime.

Ben Ali's security chief Ali Seriati was arrested earlier Sunday and a top security official suspected to be the former interior minister was also reportedly detained.

"General Ali Seriati has been placed under arrest," the official said.

Seriati was a key figure in the security apparatus put in place by the authoritarian Ben Ali and state television earlier reported that he is accused of plotting against the government and fomenting armed attacks.

Taoufik Adababi has been appointed the new presidential security chief.

Meanwhile, Tunisian police arrested four people carrying German passports over a shooting incident near the headquarters of an opposition party in the capital on Sunday, state television said, quoting a security source.

Tunisian police earlier told Reuters that two of the people detained over the same incident held Swedish passports

Soldiers and tanks were deployed around the capital Tunis after shops and homes were looted extensively and vandals set fire to the main railway station.

The crackle of gunfire echoed on Saturday in the largely deserted streets of the city center, which was sealed off by security forces to prevent protests. Fire also broke out in front of the headquarters of Tunisia's main opposition party, the Progressive Democratic Party.

Tunisia has been under a state of emergency since Friday, with public gatherings banned and a strict dusk-to-dawn curfew in force.

Meanwhile, leaders of Tunisias political parties met to try to hammer out a national-unity government following rioting over unemployment that led to the ouster of the president for the past 23 years, Ben Ali.

However, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi promised rapid action to fill the power vacuum. "Tomorrow we will announce the new government which will open a new page in the history of Tunisia," Ghannouchi said in a brief statement.

Opposition gets ministers

Two sources close to the negotiations told Reuters three Tunisian opposition leaders will take posts in the new coalition government, and the foreign and interior ministers in the old administration will keep their jobs, .

The sources said Najib Chebbi, founder of the opposition PDP party, would be regional development minister, Ahmed Ibrahim, head of the Ettajdid party, would be higher education minister, and Mustafa Ben Jaafar, head of the Union of Freedom and Labour, would have the health portfolio.

Ahmed Friaa, appointed interior minister last week, and Kamel Morjane, foreign minister under the old government, will stay in their jobs, the sources said.

Tunisia's acting leaders looked into political reforms Sunday following the abrupt end of former strongman Ben Ali's 23-year rule, as the Arab state veered towards chaos.

Tomorrow we will announce the new government which will open a new page in the history of Tunisia

Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi

After being formally sworn into office to take over from Ben Ali, the 78-year-old speaker of parliament Foued Mebazaa said that all Tunisians "without exception" would now be able to take part in national politics.

"A unity government is necessary in the greater national interest," Mebazaa said as the Constitutional Council declared that a presidential election should be held in two months' time.

A unity government is necessary in the greater national interest

Interim President Foued Mebazaa

Political discussions

On Saturday afternoon a number of well-known figures filed into the prime minister's office, where they were received separately, according to Mustapha Ben Jaafar, head of the Democratic Forum for Work and Liberties, which is a member of Socialist International.

"The discussions revolved around measures to lay the basis for a real democratic process and turn the page on a failed system," Ben Jaffar told AFP.

Ben Ali's party would not be left out of the process, Ben Jaffar added.

Opposition leader Najib Chebbi said after talks with Ghannouchi that elections could be held under international supervision within six or seven months.

"Mr. Ghannouchi proposed that our party participate in the formation of a government of national unity that would be open to democratic forces, which means our party and two others," Chebbi told French RTL radio.

On Sunday Ghannouchi was to hold meeting to discuss the composition of a government of national unity and holding elections under international supervision.

The exiled head of the main Tunisian Islamist party, which was banned by Ben Ali, told AFP that he now planned to return to his homeland.

"The Tunisian intifada has succeeded in collapsing the dictatorship," said Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennahdha party, speaking from London.

The discussions revolved around measures to lay the basis for a real democratic process and turn the page on a failed system

Mustapha Ben Jaafar

Chaos in Tunis

There were chaotic scenes in and around Tunis on Saturday: luxury cars were seen smashed and abandoned near the city and shops and homes had been pillaged and burnt.

The violence appeared to target the property of Ben Ali's family in particular.

Soldiers were seen dragging dozens of suspected looters from their cars at gunpoint and loading them into trucks at a checkpoint outside the city.

In Monastir in central Tunisia at least 42 prisoners were killed in a fire after an inmate set his mattress alight -- one of several attempted escape bids as prisoners apparently sought to take advantage of the chaos.

Imed Trabelsi, nephew of Ben Ali's powerful wife Leila, died of a knife wound in the capital's military hospital, a staff member told AFP Saturday.

It was not immediately clear how Trabelsi, the first confirmed victim in the former president's immediate entourage, had been wounded, but reports circulating in Tunis spoke of a settling of accounts by one of his former colleagues.

In May he was "elected" mayor of the commune of La Goulette, north of Tunis, where he installed himself as supremo well before the vote was held.

Law suits had been started against him in France for organized crime after the theft of a swish yacht belonging to a bank executive close to President Nicolas Sarkozy and former president Jacques Chirac. His country refused to extradite him.

"Jasmine Revolution"

Ben Ali signed his resignation on Friday and fled to Saudi Arabia after a wave of protests sparked by the suicide of a 26-year-old university graduate prevented by police from selling fruit and vegetables to make a living.

Human rights groups say dozens of people have been killed in the protests, which began last month and have since escalated into a popular movement against unemployment, poverty and the alleged corruption of the ruling elite.

International powers including European nations and the United States urged calm in Tunisia and called for democracy after events that Tunisian Internet users have dubbed the "Jasmine Revolution".

France, once one of Ben Ali's closest allies and Tunisia's former colonial overlord, said that the people of Tunisia had "expressed their democratic will" and called for "free elections in the shortest time possible."

The Arab League said the overthrow of Ben Ali was a "historic" event.

The revolt in Tunisia "is the first popular uprising to succeed in removing a president in the Arab world," said Amr Hamzawy, an analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Centre based in Beirut.

"It could be quite inspiring for the rest of the Arab world."

Ben Ali came to power in a bloodless coup in 1987 at a time of stagnation for Tunisia and was initially hailed by many for enacting liberal reforms but the lavish lifestyle of his inner circle sparked outrage in recent years.