COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Denmark's largest selling broadsheet newspaper issued an apology to the "honorable citizens of the Muslim world" after publishing a series of insulting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (p) that provoked protests across the Muslim world.

In a lengthy statement the editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten admitted that the 12 cartoons, one of which depicted the prophet (p) wearing a bomb-shaped turban, had caused "serious misunderstandings".

Carsten Juste said: "The 12 cartoons ... were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims, for which we apologize."

Juste spoke out hours after Scandinavians were warned against travelling to Gaza and the West Bank after the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade demanded that all Swedes and Danes leave the territories.

Danish businesses started to take fright on Monday after religious leaders in Saudi Arabia, which last week recalled its ambassador to Copenhagen, called for a boycott of Danish goods.

Iraq’s highest religious authority Grand Ayatullah Ali As-Sistani urged Copenhagen to take “measures to discourage” those who offend Islam, his spokesman said.

“The ayatullah asks the government of Denmark to take measures to discourage those who knowingly harm Islam,” said Sistani’s spokesman Hamed Al Khafaf in the holy city of Najaf.

Khafaf added that Sistani “had asked Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to summon the Danish ambassador to Baghdad to inform him that Najaf’s religious authorities and the Iraqi people condemn the Danish Press’s attack against Islam and to demand these measures.”

The Marjaiya, or top religious authority, “equally denounce the fact that the Danish government has cloaked this offense in the name of defending free expression,” Khafaf said.

Amid this atmosphere, Jyllands-Posten finally admitted it had made a mistake, and published an apology on its website.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, on Monday night welcomed the apology. Insisting that the government could not apologize on behalf of newspapers, Rasmussen told the TV2 channel: "I personally have such a respect for people's religious belief that I personally never would have depicted Mohammad, Jesus or any other religious character in a way that could offend other people."