BAGHDAD, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Iraq's Transport Ministry said on Sunday it had frozen contracts with Denmark and Norway in protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published in the countries' newspapers.
"This decision was taken to protest the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad and we will not accept any reconstruction money from Denmark or Norway," said a spokesman on behalf of Transport Minister Salam al-Malaki.
The spokesman said he did not know the value of contracts between Iraq and Norway and Denmark, which has more than 500 troops in Iraq.
Militant groups in Iraq have threatened Denmark's troops and a patrol was shot at on Sunday in an attack the Danish army said may have been connected to the furore.
Denmark's Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller rejected that Danish contracts had been frozen.
"That is not the message we have been given by the Iraqi government," Moeller told Danish TV2 News.
But the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party (DPP), which the government relies on for support to maintain a majority but is not in government itself, said it was surprised at the Iraqi decision.
Its foreign policy spokesman Soeren Espersen told Ritzau news agency: "If the Transport Ministry's decision reflects the position of the whole Iraqi government, it means that one of the key reasons for being in Iraq has disappeared."
"We spend a lot of resources rebuilding their land. I had expected Iraq to stay out of the Mohammad discussion," he said.
MILITANT THREATS
The uproar over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper and were reprinted in other European countries, has swept across the Muslim world. One image depicted the Prophet Mohammad with a turban resembling a bomb.
Islam forbids any depiction of the Prophet.
Earlier on Sunday, more militant groups called for attacks on Danish troops in Iraq and people from all countries where cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad have been published.
In an Internet statement, the Islamic Army in Iraq, which has claimed responsibility for killing foreign hostages, urged militants to kidnap Danes and "cut them into as many pieces as the number of newspapers that printed the cartoons".
In the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, a group calling itself the military wing of the Army of the Right handed out leaflets during a demonstration, saying it would attack Danish and non-Muslim targets in Iraq.
"We call on all fighters in the resistance to reactivate their military activities, and the first target of the upcoming attacks should be Danish troops," said the leaflets, handed out among about 1,000 protesters.
The Islamic Army in Iraq said: "We also call for targeting companies that deal with these countries and any store that sells Danish and Norwegian products." The statement was published on a Web site often used by Iraqi militant groups.
Another militant group, the Mujahideen Army, called for attacks last week.
The Danish army said a patrol in southern Iraq was shot at on Sunday while it was giving first aid to a group of children after a traffic accident.
"This unusual attack against helpful Danish soldiers suggests that some Iraqis are carried away by the anger which has spread throughout most of the Middle East," the army said in a statement, adding the situation was more tense than normal.
(Additional reporting by Dubai and Per Bech Thomsen in Copenhagen)
