January 31, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 1, 1427

BRUSSELS, Jan 30: The European Commission has raised the prospect of WTO action against Riyadh if the Saudi government supported a boycott of Danish products because of blasphemous cartoons, a spokesman said Monday.

Some Gulf retailers have pulled Danish products from their shelves and ambassadors have been summoned for a dressing down over the publication in a Danish newspaper of the cartoons.

As the case snowballed into a diplomatic crisis, Mandelson discussed the issue of the cartoons with a senior Saudi Arabian official on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“Mr Mandelson explained that the Danish boycott would be a boycott of the European Union and the matter is very serious,” commission spokesman Peter Power told journalists

“He made it clear that if the Saudi government had encouraged the boycott, commissioner Mandelson would regret having to take the matter to the WTO,” he added.

Power declined to say whether Mandelson had been reassured by the Saudi response that it had not supported the boycott.

“I think we’re looking for clarification on this issue,” he said.

Power said that the commission was getting “conflicting reports” about decisions by retailers to boycott Danish products.

Muslims in Denmark and around the world have protested against the 12 cartoons, published in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten last September.

The cartoons were reprinted in a Norwegian magazine earlier this month sparking uproar in the Muslim world.

BOYCOTT: Denmark warned citizens on Monday not to go to Saudi Arabia and Gaza gunmen said any Danes or Norwegians who came there would face attack, as Muslim fury mounted over blasphemous cartoons.

Saudi Arabia has recalled its envoy from Denmark, Libya has closed its embassy, and thousands of Palestinians marched in protest on Monday.

The Danish Foreign Ministry warned against non-crucial travel to Saudi Arabia and urged Danes to be cautious in other Muslim countries such as Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Algeria, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories.

“In the current situation where the drawings of the Prophet Muhammad have caused strong negative reactions among Muslims, Danes who choose to stay in Saudi Arabia should show extraordinarily high watchfulness,” it added on its Website.

The Danish Red Cross said it had pulled two employees out of Gaza and one from Yemen.

Ten Palestinians armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers rallied outside the European Union headquarters in Gaza City and fired in the air, demanding an apology and saying Danes and Norwegians there would be at risk of attack.

“We warn the citizens of the above-mentioned governments to take this warning seriously because our groups are ready to implement it across the Gaza Strip,” one of the gunmen said, reading from a prepared statement.

Militants set fire to Norwegian and Danish flags and painted a footprint on the Danish flag.

Thousands of protesters in the West Bank town of Qalqilya marched through the streets, demanding an apology and burning Denmark’s flag, a white cross on a red background.

Militant groups linked to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction issued a statement saying, “We call upon all Danish citizens in (Palestine) to leave immediately.”

Hamas, the militant Islamic group which won Palestinian elections last week, urged Islamic countries to take “deterrent steps against idiotic Danish behaviour”. “We call on Muslim nations to boycott all Danish products because the Danish people supported the hateful racism under the pretext of freedom of expression,” it said in a statement.

A Website often used by militant groups in Iraq also called for a consumer boycott.

The al-Hisbah site carried a black banner bearing the address of another site, www.no4denmark.com, that showed pictures of products consumers should shun. These include Lego toys, food products, cosmetics and pump manufacturer Grundfos.

The Oslo Foreign Ministry said there were two Norwegian aid workers in Gaza who both planned to leave on Monday.

“We have advised Norwegians not to travel to the Gaza Strip,” a spokeswoman said.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen refused on Sunday to apologise, defending the right of “free speech” and saying he could not influence the media, but he condemned attempts “to demonise people because of religious beliefs”.

The world’s biggest Muslim body, the Saudi-based Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), has condemned the cartoons but called on Muslims to stick to peaceful protest.

Many ordinary Saudis have started boycotting Danish products and across the Gulf, several supermarkets pulled Scandinavian foods off the shelves after consumers complained.

Egypt is also considering recalling its Copenhagen envoy, Danish media quoted Egypt’s ambassador for saying.

The EU’s Austrian presidency rallied on Monday to the defence of the “freedom of the press and expression” amid growing Muslim anger about blasphemous Danish cartoons, while seeking to soothe tensions.

“We have reiterated our belief and our attachment to the freedom of the press and freedom of expression as part of our fundamental values,” Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik told journalists after chairing a meeting with her European Union colleagues.

—AFP