RIYADH, January 27, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Muslim countries have stepped up political and economic pressures on Denmark and Norway after two of their publications offended millions of Muslims worldwide by publishing a series of cartons ridiculing Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Saudi Arabia had recalled its ambassador to Denmark in protest to the Danish government's awkward response and indifference to the blasphemous cartoons in the country's mass-circulation daily Jyllands-Posten, Reuters reported Thursday, January 27.

"The Saudi government recalled its ambassador for consultations in light of the Danish government's lack of attention to insulting Prophet Muhammad by its newspapers," a government official said.

"This led to an escalation of the situation and its development."

Twelve drawings depicting Prophet Muhammad in different settings appeared in the paper on September 30.

In one of the drawings, an image assumed to be that of the prophet appeared with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.

The controversial cartoons have been reprinted in a Norwegian magazine on January 10 to the outrage of the Muslim world.

And in the first admission of its kind from a Danish politician, the Danish ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Hans Klingenberg, said on Thursday that his government underestimated the crisis.

"There is a risk that we in Denmark have underestimated the indignation and anger that these cartoons have caused in the Muslim world," he told Jyllands-Posten.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen refused in October to meet with 11 ambassadors of Muslim nations to discuss the issue and reluctantly said in a New Year statement that free speech should not taken as a pretext to insult religions.

Arab foreign ministers in December condemned the Danish government for its inaction.

Danish Muslims have said the Danish premier's stance on the cartoons was not "positive" and announced plans to take their legal battle against the Jyllands-Posten to the country's federal attorney general and the EU human rights commission after loosing a local case.

They further said that prime minister only moved after mounting pressures from the Muslim world and to protect Danish investments in Arab and Muslim countries.

A file photo of Danish Muslims protesting the anti-Prophet cartoons by Jyllands-Posten.

Denmark's blasphemous cartoons have triggered a boycott of Danish products in Saudi Arabia.

Alra Foods, Europe's second-largest daily company and the leading Danish exporter to the oil-rich kingdom, said phone text messages calling for a boycott of Danish products have been circulated in Saudi Arabia.

"More and more supermarkets are taking our products off their shelves and don't want fresh supplies because consumers no longer want to buy our brand," Arla Foods spokesman Louis Honore told AFP.

"The situation is very serious."

Arla Foods sells an estimated two billion kroner (268 million euros, 328 million dollars) worth of products every year to Saudi Arabia.

Klingenberg said he feared further repercussions.

"We have to take this (boycott) threat seriously, and remain attentive so that this boycott does not spread to other Muslim countries," he added.

The International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) threatened on Saturday, January 21, to call for a boycott of Danish and Norwegian products over the provocative publication.

Norway, on its part, has taken conciliatory steps over the issue to avoid more grave consequences.

The Norwegian foreign ministry on Thursday asked its diplomats in Muslim countries to express their "regrets" to their host governments about the re-printing of the cartoons.

"The publication of the cartoons has provoked strong reactions in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran," ministry spokeswoman Anne Lene Dale Sandsten told AFP.

"We understand that feelings may have been hurt."

The ministry sent a text to its embassies to help diplomats formulate the Norwegian position.

"The cartoons published in Christian magazine Magazinet are not helpful for the necessary bridge-building between people with different religious and ethnic backgrounds. Instead, they contribute to suspicion and a superfluous conflict," said the text, published in the Norwegian press.