The United Front for Liberation and Development (UFLD), an alliance of rebels from Darfur, is the latest rebel group from neighboring countries hosted by Eritrea. The alliance, according to reports, is in Asmara because it needed time "to heal internal splits."

American diplomats, according to the New York Times report, have been quietly working with Eritrea to push Darfur's rebel groups to attend the peace talks scheduled for the end of October in Libya.

New York Times' Jeffery Gettleman reports: "On Thursday, Khamis Abdullah Abakar, chairman of the The United Front for Liberation and Development and fellow rebels from Darfur, the troubled region of western Sudan, lounged in a mustard-colored villa in Asmara, Eritrea's capital, making phone calls and watching European soap operas on TV."

"All of this was courtesy of the Eritrean government, which has been a loyal friend to many of Darfur's rebel groups and a player in the peace negotiations, even as American officials are accusing Eritrea of sponsoring terrorism in other parts of the region."

Last month, Asmara also hosted a congress by groups opposed to Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), mainly made up of leaders of the ousted Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

UIC top man Hassan Dahir Aweys also resurfaced in Eritrea after months of disappearance to attend the meeting, which was concluded with a reaffirmation that military as well as political measures will be carried out in Somalia until Ethiopian forces were out of the country.

Eritrea has also opened its doors to rebel commanders from Ethiopia and has openly supported the resolution made by the anti-TFG Somali group.

Isaias' government has been accused of shipping arms to Islamist fighters in Somalia, an allegation that Asmara categorically denies. The TFG on the other hand is making efforts to consolidate its authority in the country by attempting to include opposed members of Somalia's clans.

The Asmara resolution by the UIC, however, seems to have provided the impetus for the rise in insurgency in Somalia's capital.

On Wednesday, Somalia's Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, escaped unharmed a suicide bombing at a hotel he was staying at in Baidowa.

A group calling itself Mujahidin Youth Movement allegedly claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its website. It denied that Mr. Gedi was the target in the attack which is said to have killed two Ethiopian soldiers.

Gedi is in Baidowa to attend a vote of confidence in his government.

Relations between him and the president, Abdullahi Yusuf, have also been strained following Gedi's decision to dismiss an official allied to Yusuf.