Two Maltese who were being held in the Tunisian prison of Messadine may have been among hundreds who escaped amid the unrest in Tunisia.
Thomas Camilleri of Gzira and Glenn Paul Xuereb of San Gwann, both 22, had been under arrest since July. They have denied conspiring to smuggle cannabis out of the country.
All the prisoners escaped from the jail as the guards deserted, and the two Maltese have not been in contact with relatives or the Maltese embassy in Tunis since.
Other Maltese held in a separate prison have been accounted for.
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Meanwhile, Tunisia's interim president and prime minister quit the party of ousted leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali today, state media said, amid protests over the inclusion of party members in the new government.
The Constitutional Democratic Rally expelled disgraced former president Ben Ali and six of his close associates, the official TAP news agency reported.
Earlier in the day the resignation of three ministers rocked the fledgling unity government. Protesters vented their anger against the new leadership and banned Islamists eyed a political future.
The ministers, representing Tunisia's main trade union, announced their withdrawal after the union refused to recognise an administration that contains eight ministers from president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's discredited regime.
"We are resigning from the government," said Houssine Dimassi, employment minister in the transitional government that was only unveiled on Monday.
The opposition party also suspended its participation.
A representative of the popular Islamist movement Ennahdha (Awakening) said meanwhile it would seek to acquire legal status as a political party and take part in planned parliamentary elections.
"If democracy is installed, we will be a party like all the others, we will have our rights and our duties," Ali Laraidh, imprisoned for 14 years under Tunisia's old regime for plotting against the state, told AFP.
One of Ben Ali's fiercest critics, Moncef Marzouki, also returned to Tunisia today after years of exile in Paris. There were emotional scenes at Tunis airport as he greeted a group of supporters.
Marzouki has said he intends to run in the presidential election.
The Tunisian revolt has inspired dissidents in several Arab countries and there has been a spate of public suicides similar to the one of a 26-year-old graduate whose self-immolation in Sidi Bouzid sparked the protests.
Two Egyptians set themselves on fire and a father-of-six became the fifth Algerian to turn himself into a human fireball.
In tightly controlled Yemen, police fired warning shots as hundreds of protesters chanted pro-Tunisia slogans at Sanaa University.