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[la_vie_noire]

Tunisia PM announces resignation.

Mohammed Ghannouchi, Tunisia's interim prime minister, has resigned, as security forces clashed with protesters in Tunis, the capital, who were demanding some of his minsters be removed.

Hours later it was announced that Beji Caid Essebsi, a former minister, would take over the premiership. Essebsi was foreign minister under Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia's president after independence,

Ghannouchi made the announcement on state television on Sunday, saying that he had thought carefully before taking the decision and that he had the support of his family.

"I am not running away from responsibility ... This is to open the way for a new prime minister," he said. "I am not ready to be the person who takes decisions that would end up causing casualties."

Ghannouchi has led the country since Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's former president, fled Tunisia on January 14, following a popular uprising.

But Ghannouchi was a longtime ally of Ben Ali and, though he pledged elections to be held by mid-July, protesters have called for him to step aside.

On Friday tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets demanding the prime minster's resignation.