Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is on a 4-day official visit to Tunisia, laid a founding stone for the new Palestinian embassy in Tunis, the official TAP press agency reported on Tuesday.

Abbas, accompanied by Tunisia's minister of land affairs Slim Ben Hamidene, said that the act "shows the symbolic place Palestine occupies in the heart of Tunisians."

He also announced the forthcoming opening in Ramallah of the provisional Tunisian embassy in Palestine, expressing the hope that the permanent embassy will see the day in "liberated Jerusalem."

On Saturday, Tunisia President Moncef Marzouki announced that Tunisia had donated a plot of land for the building of Palestinian embassy in Tunis.