Prime Minister Ali Larayedh vowed Thursday his cabinet will make every effort to turn to dialogue with its detractors to resolve Tunisia's political crisis sparked by an opposition leader's assassination.

"Dialogue is the best way to overcome difficulties and resolve current problems," he said in a message for the start of Eid al-Fitr, the holidays marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Tunisia's ruling Islamist Ennahda party said Wednesday it accepted the suspension of the North African country's National Constituent Assembly and urged talks with its rivals on a national unity government.

"Despite our formal and legal reservations about this initiative, we hope it will serve as a catalyst for political adversaries to sit down at the negotiating table," a party statement said.

Tunisian newspapers said Wednesday the country's Islamist rulers and their detractors must open a dialogue on ending the political crisis gripping the North African state before it's too late for negotiations.

Tens of thousands of people poured onto the streets of Tunis overnight to demand the government's resignation, as the crisis deepened with the suspension of Tunisia's elected National Constituent Assembly (ANC).

Tens of thousands of people poured onto the streets of the Tunisian capital to demand the resignation of the government as the political crisis in the north African nation deepened.

The country has been wracked by political unrest since the July 25 murder of opposition lawmaker Mohamed Brahmi and Tuesday's protests marked the biggest anti-government demonstration since the assassination.

The elected National Constituent Assembly is suspending its work until the government and opposition open a dialogue to end Tunisia's political crisis, its speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar announced on Tuesday.

"I assume my responsibility as president of the ANC (assembly) and suspend its work until the start of a dialogue, in the service of Tunisia," he said on state television.

Tunisia's Islamist ruling party chief has said the government will not step down under pressure from the opposition, even as fresh protests were being readied Tuesday to demand just that.

And Prime Minister Ali Larayedh took a swipe at demonstrators, saying they were hampering efforts by security forces to root out gunmen linked to al-Qaida.

Tunisia's ruling Ennahda party leader Rashid Ghannouchi raised the prospect of a referendum as a way out of the country's political crisis, in an interview published Monday by Belgian daily Le Soir.

"It's a fact that in Tunisia there are two 'streets'," Ghannouchi said, referring to demonstrations for and against the ruling cabinet following Ennahda claims that 200,000 people rallied Saturday in support of the embattled Islamist-led government.

Fresh protests against Tunisia's Islamist-led coalition government erupted on Monday, deepening the north African nation's political crisis as two soldiers killed by militants linked to al-Qaida were to be buried.

Police used batons and tear gas against protesters who tried to break into local government offices in the center-west city of Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the 2011 revolution.

Tunisia said its forces killed a "terror" suspect in a dawn raid Sunday and separately foiled a political assassination, like the one that has plunged the country into crisis.

The announcements came after rival protests for and against the Islamist-led coalition government, with the opposition demanding the resignation of the cabinet and the dissolution of the National Constituent Assembly.

Tunisia's army pressed ahead Saturday with operations against Islamists in a remote mountain range after a deadly ambush on its troops heightened a crisis sparked by a political assassination.

The authorities kept a tight lid on the overland and helicopter raids launched Friday in the Mount Chaambi area near the border with Algeria where Islamist militants including veterans of a revolt in northern Mali are suspected to be hiding out.