A first meeting of Tunisia's transitional government was postponed Wednesday, as demonstrators in several cities continued to demand that members of the previous administration be barred from power, DPA reported.
The meeting was postponed until Thursday, government sources told the German Press Agency dpa. No reasons were initially given.
In Tunis around 2,000 people returned to the streets to demand that ministers who had served ousted ex-president Zine el-Abidine ben Ali be barred from the government.
Several ministers, including Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi and Foreign Minister Kamel Morjane, were reappointed to their posts in the government that also includes members of the opposition and civil society.
The crowd also chanted slogans denouncing the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), Ben Ali's former party. No clashes with police were initially reported.
Several towns in the centre of the country, where the unrest began in December, also saw renewed protests Wednesday.
Since Ben Ali abruptly fled the country last Friday the target of popular discontent in Tunisia has shifted to the RCD - the party that has ruled the country since independence from France in 1956.
On Tuesday three ministers from the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) quit the government in protest at RCD members being given the top jobs.
Health minister-designate Mustapha Ben Jaafar of the opposition FDLT party has also announced he is boycotting the government.
Although the demonstrations continued, Tunis was regaining a semblance of normality Wednesday after days of violent clashes between police and protesters in the run-up to Ben Ali's departure, and, looting after he left.
While universities and schools remained closed many shops had reopened and many people had returned to work.
Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia after a month of protests that began over unemployment and gradually swelled into a national uprising, in which 78 people were killed. His repressive regime had ruled for 23 years.