Five militants killed by Tunisian forces near the Libyan border had slipped across with the aim of carrying out "terrorist attacks", Prime Minister Habib Essid said Thursday.

Essid, in a statement on his official Facebook page, praised the army and national guard units who had eliminated the "terrorist cell sent in from Libya".

Tunisia said Sunday it would extend by one month a nationwide state of emergency imposed after a November suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed 12 presidential guards.

The presidency, in a statement on its official Facebook page, said the state of emergency would be extended for a month from February 22.

Tunisia has called on European governments to revise travel warnings for the country, highlighting its efforts to boost security after deadly jihadist attacks hit its vital tourism sector last year.

"Showing solidarity with Tunisia in this period requires (European) states to review their warnings to citizens against traveling to Tunisia, which will help the tourism sector regain its normal pace," Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui said in a statement released late Wednesday.

Tunisia said Friday that it was asking its regional authorities to work on a plan to cope with the fallout of a possible foreign military intervention in neighboring war-torn Libya.

In 2011, hundreds of thousands of people fled from Libya to Tunisia -- a country of around 11 million -- to escape fighting that led to the fall of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Tunisia has made nearly half a billion dollars from the sale of assets confiscated from ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his allies, a minister said Wednesday.

In the months following Ben Ali's flight to Saudi Arabia after the January 2011 revolution that ended his rule, the cash-strapped country seized hundreds of businesses, properties, luxury cars and jewelery belonging to him, his family and his allies.

Human Rights Watch has praised Tunisia on judicial reforms which it said amounted to a "significant breakthrough" in protecting the rights of detainees.

Parliament on Tuesday approved amendments to Article 13 of Tunisia's penal code to fall in line with the new constitution adopted two years ago as part of the country's political transition from dictatorship to democracy.

Tunisia said on Thursday it is lifting a nationwide nighttime curfew imposed last month after the worst social unrest witnessed in the country since its 2011 revolution.

"In light of the improvement in the security situation, it was decided that from Thursday... the curfew on all Tunisian territory will be lifted," the interior ministry said in a statement.

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid defended his government Wednesday before parliament, faced with unemployment and poverty at the root of the worst social unrest since the 2011 revolution.

"We have tried, as far as possible, to improve the situation," he told a special parliamentary session on last week's protests that led to clashes with security forces in which dozens of people were injured, mostly in the disadvantaged center of Tunisia.

Hundreds of police staged a protest on Monday outside Tunisia's presidential palace to demand a pay rise, in the latest sign of the country's economic and social woes.

Meanwhile, the authorities trimmed two hours off an overnight curfew imposed nationwide on Friday after anti-poverty and unemployment demonstrations in the worst social unrest since the 2011 revolution.

France will provide one billion euros ($1.1 billion) to Tunisia over the next five years as part of an economic support package, the French presidency said Friday.

"A major aspect of the plan aims to help poor regions and young people, putting the focus on employment," said the office of French President Francois Hollande following a meeting with Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid in Paris.