Apparently, this was not enough and police had to fire shots into the air to try to disperse hundreds of protesters demanding that ministers associated with the rule of Ben Ali leave the government.

The protesters, who gathered outside the Tunis headquarters of the RCD, refused to move back when police fired shots from behind a metal fence. For the first time since the fall of Ben Ali last week, there were also protests in other towns across Tunisia.

Tunisians rejoiced at the news of the arrest of 33 relatives of Ben Ali as they tried to leave the country. "They stole from the people, the very bread that feeds us," said a resident of La Goulette where the mayor was Imed Trabelsi, a favored nephew of the president. "It must all be returned."

State television announced the roundup and showed a stash of jewelry, watches and international bank cards it said were seized in raids on homes of the family.

The Tunisian justice system has opened an investigation into Ben Ali and the family of his second wife Leila Trabelsi for "illegal acquisition of goods" and the "illegal financial investments abroad."

The ministers in the interim government resigned from the RCD party in a bid to restore credibility after four opposition ministers quit the Cabinet, saying ministers belonging to the RCD must go.

In a new blow to the government, a junior minister stepped down Thursday, the official news agency said. "I am stepping down for the higher interests of the country in this delicate situation to try to bring the country out of crisis and ensure a democratic transition," Zouheir M'Dhaffar, minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, was quoted as saying by the TAP news agency.

The prime minister and caretaker president left the RCD earlier this week.

At the Borj Lamary prison, just outside Tunis, a bus emerged carrying inmates released under a government order to free all political prisoners. Families of the released prisoners hugged them when the bus stopped and let them out nearby.

Among those freed was Sameer Hagouba, who said he had been studying at Al-Azhar University in Egypt when he was deported on terrorism-related charges and imprisoned in his native Tunisia. "Does this look like the face of terrorism?" asked Hagouba, a young man with a light and carefully trimmed beard. "We call now for all political prisoners to be released..."