More than 80 people were arrested on Thursday in Montreal, Canada's second-largest city, after a protest staged by students over a planned tuition hike turned violent following a disagreement between government officials and student union leaders.

More than 10,000 students marched in downtown Montreal late Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Violence broke out in the early hours as rioters smashed windows of banks and stores. Police responded by firing pepper spray and stun grenades into crowds and making more than 80 arrests.

In Quebec's provincial legislature, government leaders said they will not give in to protesters, who have been disrupting Quebec's universities for 71 days to protest a planned 75 percent hike in tuition fees -- 1,600 Canadian dollars (about 1626 U.S. dollars) -- over the next five years.

As the university term draws to an end, the level of violence and number of arrests has increased sharply. Violence began after the government refused to meet with members of CLASSE, the most radical of the Quebec university student groups.

The government said it would sit down with leaders of student groups that did not use violence or civil disobedience.

"We need to firmly condemn this violence," Quebec premier Jean Charest told reporters Thursday. "We will not negotiate at the expense of accepting violence, of accepting intimidation... We want a dialogue to be conducted with respect. That is a minimal condition," Charest said.

"We will not yield to the violence or to the street (protests). That's out of the question," said Education Minister Line Beauchamp in the legislature Thursday afternoon.

Public Security Minister Robert Dutil blamed the students and their association CLASSE for the violence.

"The CLASSE operates with street violence....They seem to be saying that all means including violence are good to achieve their goal. That's my reading of what they are all about," Dutil said. (One U.S. dollar equals about 0.9840 Canadian dollar)