The U.N. Security Council is set to consider new sanctions against Eritrea for alleged attempts to destabilize neighboring countries.

The 15-nation Council was due on Tuesday to begin discussing proposals to ban investment in Eritrea's mining industry, and to impose additional travel bans and asset freezes on Eritrean leaders.

In 2009, the Security Council enacted an arms embargo on Eritrea, and sanctions on some of its leaders, because of the country's alleged support for Islamist militants in Somalia.

The U.N. group that monitors those sanctions recently said Eritrea was behind a plot to bomb an African Union summit in Ethiopia this past January.

Eritrea has denied supporting Somali militants, denied having a role in the alleged bomb plot, and called on the Security Council to remove all sanctions aimed at the country.

It blames the drive for sanctions on rival Ethiopia, with whom Eritrea fought a border war from 1998 to 2000.