Tunis, Feb 4 (IANS): A policeman and four terrorists were killed in an armed clash between security forces and Islamist militants holed up in a house in a northern suburb of Tunisia's capital Tunis, the country's interior ministry said Tuesday.

A gunfight erupted between security forces and armed men hiding in the house in Raoued suburb in Tunis during a police raid Monday, Xinhua reported citing the ministry.

The gun battle continued until Tuesday morning and a National Guard agent and four terrorists were killed, said the ministry's spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui.

Security forces had been trying to negotiate with the militants to persuade them to turn themselves in, but the latter resisted, the spokesman said.

The militants had explosives-packed belts and heavy arms in their possession, he added.

While official sources refrained from providing any details on the identity of the "terrorist elements", Tunisian radio Mosaique FM reported that some of them were involved in last July's terrorist attack, which claimed eight lives among the Tunisian army in an ambush at Chaambi mountain west of Tunisia.