Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, a longtime ally of Ben Ali, and several top ministers retained their posts in the shake-up. Ghannouchi also announced that political prisoners would be freed, among an array of measures aimed at loosening up a political system that for decades was effectively under one-party rule.

Ghannouchi said the current ministers of defense, interior and foreign affairs would keep their posts.

Three opposition figures, including Nejib Chebbi, a founder of the opposition PDP party, will take up posts in the government. Until new presidential elections are held, the country is being run by interim President Fouad Mebazaa, former speaker of the lower house of Parliament, also a veteran of Tunisia's ruling party.

Ghannouchi said all restrictions on the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights would be lifted. The government would create three new state commissions to study political reform, investigate corruption and bribery, and examine abuses during the recent upheaval.

One of the country's best known opposition figures, Moncef Marzouki, branded his country's new government a "masquerade" still dominated by supporters of the ousted strongman.

"Tunisia deserved much more," the leftist politician declared. "Ninety dead, four weeks of real revolution, only for it to come to this? A unity government in name only because, in reality, it is made up of members of the party of dictatorship, the RCD," he said, on France's I-Tele.

Many opponents of Ben Ali's rule have taken to the streets to express their hopes that the new government would not include remnants of his regime. Earlier Monday, security forces fired tear gas to repel angry demonstrators calling for a government without the RCD.

A union leader upset at the prospect of a government full of old guard ministers, predicted growing demonstrations to press for an end to power positions for the RCD. "It (RCD) left by the back door and is coming back through the window," said Habib Jerjir, member of the executive bureau of the Regional Workers' Union of Tunis.

The European Union said it stands ready to help Tunisia become a democracy and offer economic aid.

Finance Minister Christine Lagarde of France — a former colonial overseer of Tunisia — told French radio that Paris is keeping a close watch on the assets of Tunisians in French banks.

Tunisia's central bank Monday denied a report that Ben Ali's relatives fled the country with 1.5 tons of gold.