In a tirade of charges and counter-charges, the faltering dialog between the Armenian government and the opposition based HAK (Armenian National Congress) ground to a halt on Friday.

The HAK pulled out of the next scheduled meeting yesterday at the last minute, claiming that they could not continue to "dialog" when Tigran Arakelyan, one of their young activists, arrested earlier this month, remains in police detention.

In a statement, the HAK accused the government of going back on its pledge to work for the immediate release of the activist.

In turn, the government's delegation to the talks said that it had never made such a pledge and accused the HAK of intentionally spreading lies.

"We regret not so much your lies as the fact that we have started not trusting in you," the coalition's negotiating team stated.

The coalition team said the issue of the continued arrest of the HAK activist was a legal matter and not one to be discussed during the ongoing political process.

"We will repeat what we said during the previous meetings: we did not, do not and will not link the issue of the young man involved in the incident with this important political process because it completely lies on a legal plane," read the coalition statement.

HAK representative Levon Zurabyan continues to argue that the activist remains in custody "contrary to mutual understandings and assurances."