LONDON, Jan. 31 – As Islamic protests spread about cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister, defended press freedom in his country on Tuesday but distanced himself from the newspaper's decision to publish the drawings.
His remarks fell far short of the apology demanded by an array of Islamic groups and countries which have imposed a remarkably successful boycott of Danish products.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministries in Iran and Iraq both summoned Danish diplomats to protest the publication last September of the cartoons, which included one depicting Muhammad wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb.
Sudan joined Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim countries in a boycott of Danish products, and some international supermarket chains withdrew Danish dairy products from their stores in many Islamic countries.
In the Middle East, protesters in Gaza took to the streets for a second day. In Tunis, Arab interior ministers called on the Danish authorities to punish those who drew the cartoons, which were also reprinted Jan. 9 by Magazinet, a Christian newspaper in Norway.
Islam forbids depictions of the prophet.
On Monday, Carsten Juste, the editor in chief of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the 12 drawings, said he had apologized for the "fact that the cartoons undeniably offended many Muslims."
Despite the apology, the offices of Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen and in the northern town of Aarhus were evacuated Tuesday after a bomb threat, Agence France-Presse reported.
"At approximately three minutes past five, an English-speaking person gave a message that there would be a bomb attack at the Jyllands-Posten offices 10 minutes after," Flemming Munch, a Copenhagen police spokesman, told the news agency.
Magazinet, the Norwegian publication, also said Tuesday that it "regretted if the drawings offended Muslims."
The Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, told a Norwegian news agency, "we will not apologize because in a country like Norway, which guarantees the freedom of expression, we cannot apologize for what the newspapers print."
"But I am sorry that this may have hurt many Muslims," he said.
In Copenhagen, Mr. Rasmussen sought a similar balance, saying: "I want to emphasize that in Denmark we attach fundamental importance to the freedom of expression, which is a vital and indispensable part of a democratic society."
"This being said I would like to stress as my personal opinion that I deeply respect the religious feelings of other people," Mr. Rasmussen said. "Consequently, I would never myself have chosen to depict religious symbols in this way."
Some Islamic leaders in Denmark said they were satisfied by the actions by the Danish newspaper and prime minister. "We will in clear terms thank the prime minister and Jyllands-Posten for what they have done," Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the Islamic Religious Community in Denmark told Reuters.
