Copenhagen, Denmark - Denmark's government scrambled to repair the damage to its relations with the Muslim world after a newspaper published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, while other European media also printed images citing freedom of speech.
The 12 cartoons, first published by Danish daily Jyllands-Posten last September, have sparked a debate on where to draw the line on freedom of expression, as Muslim anger over the drawings continues to swell.
Several newspapers in Europe entered the fray by publishing some or all of the caricatures, including the French daily France-Soir, Germany's Die Welt, Italy's Corriere della Serra and La Stampa, and Spain's Catalan daily El Periodico.
Some said they were printing the cartoons in support of Jyllands-Posten, while others said they were used to illustrate articles on the dispute.
Muslim outrage over the images depicting the Prophet Mohammed has boiled over into a diplomatic crisis threatening Danish relations with the Muslim world.
Islam considers any image of the prophet blasphemous.
Danish flags have been burnt, ambassadors have been recalled, products have been boycotted and threats of violence have been issued against Scandinavians in Muslim countries in recent days.
The sketches include a portrayal of Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban and show him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by two women shrouded in black.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has repeatedly refused to apologize for the paper's publication of the cartoons, saying that would constitute meddling in press freedoms.
He has however apologized if Muslims were offended.
"We are up against uncontrollable forces. It will take a huge effort to calm things down," he told Danish media late Tuesday.
"Our diplomats are currently attempting to repair the misunderstandings that have surfaced," he said.
Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller discussed the issue in London on Tuesday with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice.
"If he (Annan) can talk to both sides and in that way be of help, then he will do it," Moeller said after the meeting.
Moeller also postponed a trip to Africa next week in order to concentrate on resolving the dispute.
Yet despite Copenhagen's efforts,
Syria announced that it had recalled its ambassador to Denmark, while Chechen guerrilla leader Shamil Basayev threatened a response to the cartoons.
And in Russia, the Orthodox Church and the Mufti Council, which represents 23 million Muslims, condemned European newspapers for reprinting the drawings.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) meanwhile voiced alarm over a call by Arab interior ministers for Denmark to punish the authors of the newspaper cartoons.
RSF Secretary General Robert Menard told AFP he was "extremely worried by the reaction of Arab regimes, which betrays a lack of understanding of the nature of press freedom."
Arab regimes "do not understand that there can be a complete separation between what is written in a newspaper and what the Danish government says," Menard said.
Press freedom extends "to include the publication of information that is shocking for the population. The European Court of Human Rights says so. It is an essential accomplishment of democracy," he argued.
But in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, officials said a newspaper could not hide behind the excuse of freedom of expression.
"Freedom of expression cannot justify indignity towards a religion," foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin Thamrin said.
The influential Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia urged the government to protest to Denmark and called on Copenhagen to apologized
The editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, which published the cartoons after the Danish author of a book on Islam was unable to find a single cartoonist who dared to illustrate the prophet, said opponents of freedom of expression had scored a victory.
"They've won. That is what is so appalling. My guess is that no one in the next generation is going to want to draw the Prophet Mohammed in Denmark and therefore I must ashamedly admit it: they've won," Carsten Juste told the Berlingske Tidende daily.
In Copenhagen, police said they were bracing for possible anti-Muslim protests by Danish far-right youths in the Danish capital.
Police said security in the capital was at a "very high level".