NAIROBI, 20 October 2004 — Eritrea has accused Sudan of trying to assassinate President Isayas Afewerki and destabilize the tiny Horn of Africa state in the latest round in a long-running war of words between the two neighbors.

“The Khartoum regime continues to step up its attempts to disrupt peace and stability in Eritrea and the region by pursuing its practice of governmental terrorism and assassination attempts over the president,” Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed said yesterday.

Ahmed gave no details of the plots, which Sudan immediately denied, but the accusation is likely to further sour already poor relations between the two countries.

“The government has denied this accusation because they feel that the Eritrean government has no evidence for this,” a Sudanese official, who did not want to be named, said. Sudan’s security chief Salah Gosh on Monday accused Eritrea of backing Darfur rebels and of seeking to topple the Khartoum government in favor of the National Democratic Alliance, an opposition umbrella group based in the Eritrean capital Asmara.

The Darfur rebels have opened offices in Eritrea, and Sudan says they also have training camps there.

Eritrea, in turn, says Khartoum supports extremist groups behind bomb attacks in the west of the country and is in alliance with Ethiopia, with whom Asmara fought a two-year war in a still-simmering border dispute.

In September, Eritrea accused Sudan of encouraging terrorism after failing to hand over 75 Eritreans who hijacked a Libyan plane and forced it to land in Khartoum, where they sought political asylum.