President Moncef Marzouki was holding urgent talks on Wednesday with political leaders in a bid to steer Tunisia out of a weeks-long crisis exacerbated by the resignation of Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.

Marzouki was meeting in the morning with leader of the Islamist ruling Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi, and later with Maya Jribi of the opposition Republican party, his office said.

Germany's foreign minister on Wednesday called for squabbling factions in Tunisia to come together "in a spirit of dialogue" after Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned amid a political crisis.

Guido Westerwelle said in a statement that Berlin was "very closely watching" the situation in the North African country "in these critical days for its democratic development."

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said on Tuesday that he has submitted his resignation to President Moncef Marzouki, after failing to form a new government aimed at ending a political crisis.

"I promised and assured that, in the event that my initiative failed, I would resign as head of the government, and that is what I have done," Jebali said in remarks broadcast on television after meeting Marzouki.

Tunisia's Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali announced late on Monday that his plan for a new government of technocrats has failed, but he left the door open for compromise and did not say he would stand down.

"I say in all clarity that the initiative I presented -- that is to say, a government composed of members not belonging to any political parties -- failed to reach a consensus," Jebali said after talks with party leaders.

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali was Monday to resume talks with political party leaders aimed at forming a new government of technocrats, despite a fresh rebuff from his own ruling Islamist party Ennahda.

Complicating a political crisis that has engulfed Tunisia following the February 6 assassination of a leftwing politician, media reports said President Moncef Marzouki's center-left Congress for the Republic party was about to split.

Uncertainty gripped Tunisia on Sunday on the eve of the resumption of talks on the formation of a new government of technocrats, amid a standoff between the premier and his own ruling Islamist party Ennahda.

Tunisian media urged political groups to reach a consensus for tackling the crisis that has gripped the country since the February 6 assassination of leftist opposition leader and vocal anti-Islamist Chokri Belaid.

Thousands of members of the Islamist party Ennahda rallied on Saturday in support of its right to rule and against plans to form a government of technocrats aimed at resolving Tunisia's political crisis.

An estimated 15,000 protesters, many waving party flags and some holding black Salafist banners, thronged Habib Bourguiba Avenue, a Tunis boulevard that was the cradle of the 2011 uprising which ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali announced on Friday that talks on the formation of a new government of technocrats had been rescheduled for Monday, after he met the leaders of the main political parties.

"There has been some progress on all the points raised... That is why we have decided to continue the discussions on Monday," Jebali told reporters.

Besma Khalfaoui, Chokri Belaid's widow, has become a symbol of Tunisia's secular opposition and scourge of the ruling Islamists, waving her fingers in a victory sign just hours after her husband was killed.

On February 6, Tunisians saw the mother-of-two, her face lined with grief and her trousers still covered in blood, urging people not to react to her husband's assassination with violence, as she joined outraged protesters in central Tunis.

Embattled Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said on Thursday he will announce a new government line-up on Saturday, and warned that he will quit if it is rejected.

Jebali has been pushing to form a government of technocrats in defiance of his Islamist Ennahda party since the murder last week of vocal government critic and leftist figure Chokri Belaid plunged the country into political crisis.