Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Danish government officials are bracing for Islamic protests at home and violent demonstrations at overseas embassies after 15 newspapers published a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.

Three national newspapers and more than a dozen regional ones printed a caricature of Muhammad by cartoonist Kurt Westergaard last week. While the Koran doesn't explicitly forbid the visual depiction of the prophet, most Muslims regard his representation in images as disrespectful.

The militant Palestinian group Hamas attracted thousands of protesters to a rally in the Gaza Strip last night, when a speaker urged them to bomb Danish embassies and kill the country's ambassadors, Danish broadcaster TV2 said on its Web site today. The cartoon led to the torching of some Danish embassies in the Muslim world after it was first published in 2005. Protestors in Pakistan last week burned the Danish flag.

``Of course I'm preoccupied with the thought that this might be something that will spread,'' Soeren Pind, a spokesman for the ruling Liberal Party, said in an interview with TV2. ``It's a poisonous cocktail. We need to be very vigilant.''

Immigrant youths in Copenhagen threw stones and missiles at police on Feb. 13 and Feb. 14, with some citing the cartoons for their protests. Others were objecting to a new law allowing random body searches.

The cartoon has reignited a debate about freedom of speech and cultural differences in the Scandinavian country, home of cradle-to-grave welfare and Lego building blocks. The picture was reprinted after intelligence agents arrested three men suspected of plotting to kill Westergaard.

`Unnecessary Blood'

``The Danish government respects all faiths and their religious feelings,'' Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said today in his weekly press meeting at his Copenhagen offices, broadcast live by TV2. ``When a long line of independent media decide to reprint the pictures, it's not with the intention to insult religious feelings, but to document the background for the murder plans that police have unfolded.''

Berlingske Tidende, based in Copenhagen, said in an editorial on Feb. 13 that it published the cartoon ``to document what's at stake'' and to show ``unambiguous support for the freedom of expression.''

``In principle, I think the cartoons are all right, but I don't think printing them again was wise,'' said Anne Braad, a 60-year-old Lutheran pastor in the Noerrebro district of Copenhagen, where the riots took place. ``No more unnecessary blood should flow because of this.''

`Draw What One Chooses'

Danish lawmakers canceled a planned Feb. 18-21 visit to the Tehran parliament after Iranian politicians said in a letter the Danes were only welcome if they apologized for the cartoons. The Danish Foreign Policy Parliamentary Committee had planned the visit last year to discuss human rights with Iranian peers, including Iran's foreign minister.

Jyllands-Posten, based in Aarhus, Denmark, first published the cartoon depicting Muhammad with a bomb in his turban in September 2005, together with 11 other caricatures of the prophet. A Danish Muslim delegation traveled to the Middle East late 2005 to draw attention to the cartoons, prompting protests and boycotts of Danish goods at the beginning of 2006.

Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller in February 2006 called the violent reactions to the cartoons ``the worst foreign policy crisis Denmark has experienced since World War II.''

Westergaard, 73, has been under police protection since receiving threats after protests erupted two years ago, said Jyllands-Posten's editor-in-chief, Carsten Juste. The newspaper also received bomb threats, he said.

Denmark's Royal Library on Jan. 30 said it was in talks to acquire the 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The library said it would treat the cartoons as it does books in its collection, and would allow patrons to sign in to view them.

``I hate seeing that they're burning our flag again,'' said John Busse, a 34-year-old insurance agent in Copenhagen. ``They think the cartoons are a western provocation, but that's not the case.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Tasneem Brogger in Copenhagen at tbrogger@bloomberg.net; Christian Wienberg in Copenhagen at cwienberg@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 19, 2008 06:10 EST