20110301
reuters

TUNIS (Reuters) - Three Tunisian ministers resigned on Tuesday, leaving the caretaker government which took over power after the president was overthrown teetering on the brink of collapse.

The new resignations meant that in the space of 72 hours the prime minister and five ministers have now quit, the worst political crisis in Tunisia since veteran leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted a month and a half ago.

A source close to the government told Reuters that the new prime minister, Beji Caid Sebsi, will this week announce the creation of a representative council whose job it will be to rewrite the constitution before new elections.

That could relieve pressure on the government from its opponents but it was not clear if it would be enough for it to survive.

The ministers who resigned on Tuesday included Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, the regional development minister, and Ahmed Brahim, the higher education minister.

Both are opposition figures who were brought into the government after Ben Ali's overthrow. The third minister to resign was Elyes Jouini, who held the economic reform portfolio.

Tunisia has been struggling to restore stability since Ben Ali, who had been in power for 23 years, fled to Saudi Arabia in January after a wave of anti-government protests.

The revolution has provided the inspiration for uprisings in other parts of the Arab world, but Tunisia has since suffered outbreaks of violence and huge protests that have put pressure on the interim government.

Tunisia's government also announced it had granted the main Islamist political movement, Ennahda, permission to form a political party, the official TAP news agency said on Tuesday.

The move will allow Ennahda, a moderate Islamist movement that had been banned for two decades under Ben Ali's rule, to participate in the upcoming elections.