Tunisia's ruling Ennahda party has called on supporters to rally Saturday and back its "legitimacy" even as the prime minister, who belongs to the Islamist party, scrambles to form a new government of technocrats.

"Supporters of Ennahda must defend their revolution and the interests of the people," Mohamed Akrout, an Ennahda deputy chief, said on in a video posted Wednesday on the party's Facebook page.

Tunisia's ruling Ennahda party said Tuesday it could leave power, throwing Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali a lifeline in his quest to form a government of technocrats and steer the country out of its crisis.

"Ennahda could quit power if Jebali maintains his proposal. Everything is possible. It is not inevitable for Ennahda to stay in the government," Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem said.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki's secular party said on Monday that it would stay in the coalition government, pending the resignation of key ministers from the ruling Islamist party.

"We have decided to freeze our decision to withdraw our ministers from the government, but if in one week we don't see any changes, we will quit the government," said the party chief of the Congress for the Republic, Mohamed Abbou.

Opposition forces have struggled to carve out an identity ever since Tunisia's post-revolution elections brought Islamists to power at a time of disunity between secular parties.

The assassination on Wednesday of leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid has thrown up an opportunity to close ranks but it "may be seized or squandered," said Kamel Laabidi, founder of Vigilance for Democracy and Civil State, an NGO.

Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali's gamble on forming a new government in defiance of his own Islamist party after the assassination of opposition head Chokri Belaid left Tunisia in political limbo on Sunday.

After clashes with demonstrators between Wednesday and Friday that the interior ministry said left one policemen dead and 59 colleagues wounded, security forces remain on a state of alert with the army deployed nationwide.

Thousands of people protested in central Tunis on Saturday shouting pro-Islamist and anti-French slogans, a day after the funeral of a murdered opposition figure became a mass rally against the ruling Islamist party.

"France get out!" and "The people want to protect the legitimacy" of the government were among slogans chanted by Ennahda party supporters who numbered more than 3,000, Agence France Presse journalists estimated.

A wanted Tunisian Salafist leader has urged the ruling Islamists against making concessions to secular parties, warning that to do so would be "political suicide," a U.S.-based monitoring group said on Friday.

"We stress this to the Ennahda movement... that conceding and prostrating in such a decisive moment in our country's history will be political suicide," said Abu Iyadh, who heads the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia.

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said Friday that he stuck by his decision to form of new government of technocrats, despite a section of his ruling Islamist party opposing the plan, official media reported.

"I stick by my decision to form a government of technocrats and I would not need the support of the constituent assembly" to do so, Jebali was quoted as saying by the TAP news agency.

A sea of mourners, some wailing in grief as others angrily denounced the government, followed the coffin Friday of slain opposition leader Chokri Belaid, whose funeral became a mass protest against Tunisia's ruling Islamists.

From early morning, thousands of people gathered under a wet winter sky to pay their last respects to Belaid, many carrying pictures of the charismatic human rights lawyer and outspoken government critic.

The United States on Thursday urged Tunisian leaders to come together to resolve the tensions wracking the country, warning "there's no place for violence in Tunisia's democracy."

Washington has condemned the assassination of leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid, who was gunned down Wednesday outside his home in Tunis, sparking clashes between police and hundreds of protesters.