Clashes erupted on Tuesday between gunmen and security forces in northwestern Tunisia, near the Algerian border, official media reported.

"Clashes are currently taking place in the Gam Halfaya area of Tajerouine (in the Kef region), between an armed group consisting of six members and units from the army and national guard," the TAP news agency quoted a security source in the region as saying.

Several thousand people demonstrated on Saturday on the 40th day of mourning after the murder of opposition leader Chokri Belaid, a critic of the ruling Islamists whose death plunged Tunisia into turmoil.

People began gathering in the cemetery in southern Tunis where Belaid is buried. He was gunned down outside his home on February 6 in a killing blamed by the authorities on radical Islamists, denying any involvement.

The head of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party Ennahda insisted Friday that his group was opposed to female circumcision, after one of its MPs caused a storm by reportedly saying the operation was "aesthetic."

"We do not approve of female circumcision, a practice supported neither by Ennahda nor by religion, and which is not a part of our culture," Rached Ghannouchi told a news conference in Tunis.

Ali Larayedh became Tunisia's new Islamist premier on Thursday, taking over from his predecessor Hamadi Jebali and faced with the task of ending a political and economic crisis gripping the country.

Speaking at the swearing in ceremony at the prime minister's office, Larayedh said his cabinet would listen to "the concerns of the nation and the people."

Tunisia's lawmakers approved on Wednesday a new government formed to pull the country out of a severe crisis, the same day as an impoverished vendor died after setting himself alight in act of desperation.

Premier-designate Ali Larayedh's broadly based coalition of his own Islamist party Ennahda, two secular parties and independents received 139 votes, or 30 more than needed, in a parliamentary session broadcast on television.

Tunisian authorities have arrested two people for insulting security forces in a rap video they uploaded to the Internet, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

"The rap video posted on YouTube called 'The Police are Dogs' has words and gestures that are unethical, abusive and threatening towards security forces and magistrates," the ministry said.

MPs engaged in heated debates Monday over plans to hold a vote in July on a much-delayed constitution and schedule new elections in October as part of efforts to resolve a political crisis plaguing Tunisia.

"We denounce this hastiness concerning the calendar" of the elections, Democratic Alliance party MP Mohamed Hamdi said after the office of the president of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) announced the proposed dates.

Lawmakers from Tunisia's secular opposition Monday denounced remarks attributed to an MP from the Islamist Ennahda party that female circumcisions in Africa are carried out for "aesthetic' reasons.

"It is unacceptable that a member promotes crimes against women," lawmaker Nadia Shaaban said in the National Constituent Assembly, referring to remarks purportedly made by Habib Ellouze, an MP from the ruling Ennahda.

How important were Twitter, Facebook and other social media in toppling regimes in the Arab Spring uprisings?

Amid a fierce debate in academic circles, an upcoming book argues that social media and new technology made a key difference in successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and helped foster grassroots movements in other Arab nations.

Tunisia's National Constituent Assembly (ANC) will vote on Tuesday on whether to approve the new government line-up unveiled by Islamist premier-designate Ali Larayedh, parliamentary spokeswoman Karima Souid said on Saturday.

"On Tuesday, vote of confidence in the ANC on the new government," Souid said on her Facebook page.