Three years after its uprising, Tunisia's parliament began voting Friday on a long-delayed new constitution whose adoption would mark a crucial democratic milestone in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

A tight deadline of January 14 has been set for the adoption of the charter, which could end months of political crisis and further distance Tunisia from the chronic instability plaguing other countries in the region rocked by regime change.

The Italian navy said Friday it had rescued in 24 hours more than 1,000 migrants attempting the perilous journey across the Mediterranean by boat in rough winter seas.

Some 823 migrants were picked up on Thursday and another 233 were rescued Wednesday as part of a major ongoing search and rescue operation to save the lives of thousands of immigrants heading for Europe in overcrowded and rickety boats, the navy said.

Italy on Tuesday transferred migrants from a center on the tiny island of Lampedusa at the heart of a controversy over unsanitary conditions and mistreatment, as protests continued in other facilities.

Nine migrants at an expulsion center near Rome's airport have also sewn their mouths shut and a total of 37 are on hunger strike, said the director of the center, Vincenzo Lutrelli, Italian media reported.

Talks on a timetable to form a new Tunisian government under premier-designate Mehdi Jomaa finally began Monday after being postponed three times.

The talks, mediated by the powerful UGTT trade union, will focus on when Jomaa, an independent, takes over from Prime Minister Ali Larayedh of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party.

Tunisian premier-designate Mehdi Jomaa, chosen to form a transitional government, promised Friday to do his utmost to ensure transparent elections and bring the country out of crisis, TAP news agency reported.

Jomaa said he would "favor the appropriate conditions for transparent and credible elections, the security of Tunisians and promoting the economy with the aim of emerging from the crisis" that erupted with the July assassination of a leading opposition MP.

Tunisian rapper Weld El 15 has been acquitted on appeal of singing songs deemed insulting to the police and is to be freed, his lawyer Ghazi Mrabet told AFP Thursday.

"The court in Grombalia has decided to acquit Weld El 15. He will be freed today" Thursday, said the lawyer after his client appealed a four-month jail term handed down at the start of December.

Tunisia's designated-Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa said Wednesday he is holding consultations on forming a new government of independents aimed at ending the months-old political crisis plaguing the country.

"As part of the consultations, I met the parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar. The consultations are ongoing and we have not reached the stage of forming a government," Jomaa told reporters.

Tunisians marked the third anniversary of the self-immolation of a young street vendor that sparked the first Arab Spring uprising, although anti-government protests failed to draw large crowds on Tuesday.

Around 1,000 unionists and left-wing opposition activists gathered in Sidi Bouzid, the impoverished central town where Mohammed Bouazizi staged his iconic protest on December 17, 2011, for a demonstration against the lack of progress since the revolution.

Tunisia's parliament early Sunday adopted a "transitional justice" law designed to compensate victims of the former regimes of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Habib Bourguiba, official media said.

The law was rushed through parliament after repeated delays as the ruling Islamist Ennahda party and the opposition accused each other of trying to exploit the issue for political gain.

Tunisia's political parties chose Industry Minister Mehdi Jomaa Saturday to head a government of independent figures aimed at pulling the country out of a months-long crisis, the principal mediator said.

"Dialogue and discussions led to a vote and the choice of Mehdi Jomaa as the candidate for the post of head of government," said Houcine Abassi, secretary general of the powerful UGTT trade union.