Fifty-seven Islamic countries on Sunday agreed to hold a meeting
with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Muller over the controversial
Mohammad cartoons, the Danish Foreign Ministry said in
Copenhagen.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an association
of 57 Islamic countries, agreed to meet with Muller in an effort to
end the days-long protests by Muslims worldwide over the
caricatures, which were slammed as an "insult" to the Prophet
Mohammad.
The cartoons were first published in Denmark's
Jyllands-Posten daily and then reprinted in other European
countries.
The OIC demanded an official apology from the Danish government
at the beginning of the wave of protests 10 days ago.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he regretted
the offense caused by the illustrations, while defending his
country's long tradition of freedom of expression.
(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2006)
