Imams in Denmark seek to cool cartoon row

COPENHAGEN, Oct 13 (Reuters) Muslim clerics in Denmark praised the Danish government's condemnation of the latest group of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad and today's prayers urged increased respect for religion.

In a Copenhagen mosque, Ahmed Turki, a guest imam from Egypt visiting during Ramadan, addressed several hundred Muslim men and called for Danes and Muslims to build bridges. Freedom of speech should not mean a religion could be insulted, he added.

''Our duty is to have a dialogue about definitions and to find common ground. In the end, the Danish people are the ones who have to bear the consequences,'' he said.

Danish television stations last week aired video footage showing members of the the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party (DPP) competing to draw images mocking the Prophet at a summer camp in August, sparking anger in the Muslim world.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday denounced an attack on the Danish embassy in Tehran by protesters and repeated condemnation of the latest batch of cartoons mocking the Prophet, calling the behaviour of the DPP members tasteless.

A year ago, a Danish daily published cartoons of the Prophet, sparking protests in which more than 50 people died in Asia, Africa and the West Asia.

Rasmussen has fought to avoid a new 'cartoon crisis' with the Muslim world after the new drawings. He was criticised earlier this year for failing to apologise for the cartoons published by daily Jyllands-Posten.

''MULTITUDE OF DRAWINGS'' The Danish Foreign Ministry yesterday said it would no longer comment on what it called a multitude of videos, blogs, chat rooms and drawings of the Prophet on the Internet.

''It is quite simply impossible to relate to this development in terms of having to comment on every single new contribution.

The Government cannot do that. The Government will not do that,'' it said in a statement.

This was an apparent response to media reports in Denmark that the DPP had published another image of the Prophet on its Web site and that members of one other political party had also drawn images of the Prophet at a party gathering.

Many Muslims regard any depiction of the Prophet as offensive.

Denmark has about 200,000 Muslims, or about 4 per cent of population.

Reuters KD RS2227