Video | Tunisians take to the streets again and demand Ben Ali’s resignation

At least 5,000 people demonstrated outside the interior ministry this morning chanting "Ben Ali, leave!" and "Ben Ali, thank you but that's enough!,

The rally came hours after the 74-year-old president announced in a television address that he would not seek a sixth term.

In power since 1987, Ben Ali made sweeping concessions yesterday evening, saying security forces would no longer use live ammunition against protesters and promising freedom of the press and an end to Internet censorship. He also said the prices of sugar, milk and bread would be cut.

His foreign minister said today that Tunisia may form a national unity government and hold early parliamentary elections after what he called Ben Ali's "clear and sharp correction."

But demonstrations continued today in Sidi Bouzid, the central town where protests against unemployment and poverty began a month ago, with several thousand marchers demanding that Ben Ali go immediately, several witnesses said.

Ben Ali, only the second head of state Tunisia has ever had and in office for over 23 years, set his departure date in an emotional speech made after weeks of deadly clashes between protesters and police.

The government puts the death toll at 23 but the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said it has the names of 66 people killed.

Many of those involved in the protests said they were fed up with unemployment, a lack of liberty and the huge wealth of a tiny elite under Ben Ali, and they were expecting that he would try to extend his rule for another, sixth term.

But Foreign Minister Kamel Morjane told Europe 1 radio that Ben Ali had acknowledged errors and was a man of his word.

"He said there would be no more holding of presidential and legislative elections in parallel. In so doing, he accepted the principle of (legislative) elections before the presidential poll in 2014," the minister said.