The Iranian Foreign Minister called today for an end to the violent protest over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

On a visit to Brussels to disuss Tehran's nuclear stand-off with the West, Manouchehr Mottaki told a press conference: "We should try to cool down the situation. We do not support any violence."

Dozens of people have been killed in recent weeks as protests over the cartoons, first published in a Danish newspaper last September, have spread over the Islamic world.

A weekend of deadly rioting saw 28 people killed in Nigeria, where 15 Christian churches were burnt down, and 11 people killed in Libya.

Mr Mottaki, speaking at the Iranian mission to the EU, added that freedom of expression must be exercised with sensitivity and with respect for others’ values and beliefs. "We are facing ... angry Muslims all around the world. We have to try our best to avoid any violence," he said.

"This is what we are trying to do in Iran. ... So many of our policemen were attacked by angry people on the streets."

Mr Mottaki said that he has been in contact with European foreign ministers as well as officials from Islamic countries to try to quell the protests.

But he accused European governments of being hypocritical in their respect for freedom of expression while Holocaust denial was treated as a crime for which people could be sent to jail.

"When we are talking about the freedom of expression...it is very strange to see some European authors, some European members of parties are kicked out from their post or their position because they are making or creating some doubt about some part of some historical happening," Mr Mottaki said. "I think that is not defendable."

Despite the Iranian minister's call for calm, the protests continued today across the Islamic world. In a protest in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad hundreds of students shouted support for Osama bin Laden and threatened to join al-Qaeda during a protest against the cartoons.

Although the protest passed peacefully after the weekend violence, the students chanted "Death to Denmark", "Death to America" and "Death to France".

They also chanted "Death to Karzai" and demanded that President Hamid Karzai close the embassies of Denmark, the United States and France and expel their forces from Afghanistan.

"If they abuse the Prophet of Islam again we will all become al-Qaeda," the students shouted.

In Nepal about 5,000 Muslims marched through the western town of Nepalgunj and presented a memorandum to the town governor. "You can’t insult the Islam. Punish the cartoonist," some of them shouted.

In Pakistan, where five people were killed in protests last week, the main Islamist alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, said it would be broadening its campaign against the cartoons.

The threat was made by Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the movement's leader, who was held under house arrest in Lahore at the weekend to prevent him leading a rally in the capital Islamabad.

Meanwhile, the Danish Foreign Minister blamed extremists for the continuing violence and gave warning that al-Qaeda would exploit the situation.

Speaking to reporters in Copenhagen, Per Stig Moeller noted that protests have been tapering off in many Arab countries, while escalating in Pakistan and Turkey. "It’s the extremist forces that wish to keep it going," he said. "There is no doubt that all extremists will exploit the situation. al-Qaeda, too, will use it and fan the fire."

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