7:40pm UK, Sunday January 16, 2011
Gunfights broke out in the Tunisian capital as tensions mounted once more ahead of the formation of a new government.
Shots could be heard in the centre of Tunis, with a battle reported to be underway near the city's presidential palace.
Opposition party leaders say the composition of a new government will be announced on Monday and will not include any parties close to disgraced former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
But plans to reinstate political stability came amid reports police had arrested four people carrying German passports and two with Swedish passports over a gun battle near opposition headquarters.
Police also said they had killed two snipers, while a separate gun battle took place near the dreaded interior ministry building.
The skirmishes came as troops and tanks in the centre of the city attempted to prevent further violence and looting and the new leadership seek to create a coalition government.
Hundreds of soldiers are patrolling the streets of the capital, while army roadblocks have stopped access to Bourguiba Avenue, Tunis' main thoroughfare and scene of angry clashes.
In the wake of a second evening of city-wide curfew, reports emerged of unprecedented clashes between protesters and troops in the city.
But Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi gave an optimistic appraisal of the future during a brief statement on state television.
"Tomorrow we will announce the new government which will open a new page in the history of Tunisia," he said.
According to state media, several people including the former head of the presidential guard Ali Seriati have been detained accused of fomenting violence.
In some Tunis neighbourhoods, residents set up barricades and organised their own overnight patrols, armed with baseball bats and clubs, to deter looters.
On Saturday, around 1,000 prison inmates escaped and dozens were killed as they staged a mass jailbreak in the coastal town of Mahdia.
Elsewhere at another jail south of Tunis, 42 people died after fires broke out.
The violence came as Tunisia's parliamentary speaker was sworn in as interim president following weeks of unrest that forced the nation's leader to flee.
Are Troops Regaining Control?
Fouad Mebazaa took an oath of office after a ruling by the country's constitutional authority, which also said presidential elections must be held within 60 days.
That came after prime minister Mr Ghannouchi took over as interim president after Mr Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.
Mr Ben Ali, who served as president for more than 23 years, took refuge in the kingdom following weeks of protests over poverty, unemployment and repression.
Mr Ghannouchi said he had accepted Mr Mebazaa's request on state television that he form a coalition government.
Will the new leadership quell the violence?
The French government was among a number across Europe which called on Tunisia to hold free elections as soon as possible.
It said it had taken steps "to ensure suspicious financial movements concerning Tunisian assets in France are blocked administratively".
But Mr Ben Ali's overthrow has reverberated with long-serving leaders in other countries across the Arab world .
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said: "I am very pained by what is happening in Tunisia."
It was not clear if protesters would accept the new power arrangement because of Mr Mebazaa and Mr Ghannouchi's links to Ben Ali's rule.
The fall of Mr Ben Ali follows the country's largest protests in generations.
Thousands of Tunisians had joined the violence that spread from provincial towns to Tunis.
The government said at least 23 people have died in the riots, but opposition members have put the death toll at more than three times that.
Read Middle East correspondent Dominic Waghorn's blog
Among the casualties are a French photographer covering the street protests who died after being hit by a gas cannister thrown by a police officer.
Thousands of European tourists stranded by the unrest are being flown home on emergency flights.
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