A new attempt to open crisis talks between Tunisia’s ruling party and the opposition was marred on Friday by a shooting in Tunis suburb and a threat of boycott by opposition.

A new attempt to open crisis talks between Tunisia’s ruling party and the opposition was marred on Friday by a shooting in Tunis suburb and a threat of boycott by opposition.

In the early morning, police shot and wounded a suspected militant in a car in a Tunis suburb, prompting the closure of a nearby college, witnesses and a policeman told AFP.

The shooting came as Tunisia was still marking three days of national mourning for six policemen killed in a clash with suspected militants in the central Sidi Bouzid region on Wednesday.

The interior ministry said one suspect was taken to hospital with bullet wounds while four others were arrested.
It said the men had been travelling in a vehicle which ignored police orders to stop.

The three-month deadlock between the government and the opposition has paralyzed Tunisia's political transition nearly three years after the January 2011 overthrow of veteran strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Public anger has been mounting over the death toll from extremist violence, which saw two offices of the ruling Ennahda party torched on Thursday as six slain police officers were laid to rest.

The failure of the Islamist-led government to rein in militants has been one of the principal grievances of the mainly secular opposition, which has boycotted work on drawing up a new constitution since the killing of one its MPs by suspected jihadists in July.

The government has admitted it has struggled to contain the militants but blamed a lack of resources.
Mediators of the talks said they would make a new attempt to launch the long-awaited national dialogue on Friday despite doubts over whether the opposition would attend.

Previous efforts to launch the talks already failed on October 5 and 23.
"The national dialogue launch will go ahead at 10:00 am (0900 GMT)," said the UGTT trade union confederation, which has been the lead mediator in the protracted political crisis, just hours before the planned start.
"We will see which parties turn up."

The opposition said on Thursday evening that it would not take part until Prime Minister Ali Larayedh gives a "clear and explicit" undertaking that his government will step down within three weeks of the dialogue's launch.
The timeframe is part of a hard-won roadmap to end the crisis brokered by the mediators between the government and the opposition.