ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Ethiopia’s government rejected an opposition offer to resume a peace deal Monday, saying it must do more to save the agreement aimed at ending a week of political violence that left 36 dead.

The ruling party and the two main opposition groups signed a two-page document Friday in front of diplomats pledging to condemn all violence and exercise restraint. Then the government began arresting opposition leaders, prompting them to call the nonviolence deal meaningless.

Information Minister Bereket Simon told The Associated Press that the country’s main opposition party was too late in trying to renew the pact.

“They have missed the boat because during the signing they attached preconditions to the agreement,” he said. “What they are saying does not go far enough.”

Hailu Shawel, leader of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, was placed under house arrest hours after his party declared the agreement “not worth the paper it is written on” minutes after signing it. But after intense diplomatic pressure, the party leadership announced it accepted the deal “unequivocally and without reservations” late Saturday.

Bereket on Monday accused the party of “just playing with words.”

Ethiopian authorities also placed a senior CUD official, Lidetu Ayalew, under house arrest Saturday. The government said Hailu and Lidetu were threatening state security and were behind a week of protests in which police fired on demonstrators.

Hailu’s family also has been prevented from leaving their home.

In a statement, the European Union heads of mission encouraged “all parties to abide by their commitments under the declaration and to implement it immediately and in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect, for the benefit of the Ethiopian people who voted with such faith and hope on May 15, 2005.”

Dr. Yerdaw Ashagari, the medical director of Menelik Hospital, where all the dead from the protests have been taken, said that the toll had risen to 36 as of Sunday.

Ethiopia’s ruling party, which has pledged itself to democratic reform but shown authoritarian tendencies, claimed victory in last month’s elections based on provisional results.

The violence threatens to destabilize Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in the world, which faces cyclical drought and widespread hunger. It also could strain Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s dealings with the international community.

Meles is a member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa, which has called on the developed world to increase aid and trade to Africa and decrease its debt.

Finance ministers from the world wealthiest countries on Saturday agreed to include Ethiopia on a list of 18 countries to have all debts written off.