COPENHAGEN, Jan 31: A Danish newspaper on Monday issued an apology to Muslims for publishing cartoons considered blasphemous by Muslims. The drawings ‘were not in violation of Danish law but have undoubtedly offended many Muslims, which we would like to apologise for’, the Jyllands-Posten’s editor-in-chief Carsten Juste said in a statement posted on the newspaper’s Web site.

Although the caricatures were published in September, anger over them has spread this month through Muslim countries, prompting boycotts of Danish goods.

Masked gunmen briefly seized a European Union office in Gaza City to protest the caricatures and the Denmark-based dairy group Arla Foods reported that two of its local employees in Saudi Arabia were beaten by angry customers.

Arla said a boycott of its products in the Middle East was nearly total.

The Danish Red Cross said it was evacuating two of its employees from Gaza and one from Yemen after receiving death threats.

In a television interview, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Denmark’s government ‘cannot make apologies on behalf of a Danish newspaper. That is not how our democracy works’.’

“Independent media cannot be edited by the government,” he said on Denmark’s TV2 channel.

Earlier on Monday, Arla’s executive director urged the Danish government to take action.

“I urgently beg the government to enter a positive dialogue with the many millions of Muslims who feel they have been offended by Denmark,” Peder Tuborgh said in a statement.

“Freedom of expression is an internal Danish issue but this has a totally different dimension,” Tuborgh said. “This is about Denmark having offended millions of Muslims.”

The Norwegian People’s Aid group also said it was withdrawing its two Norwegian representatives in Gaza after the threats, but that operations would be maintained by eight local staff.

In a statement issued on Sunday evening on its Web site, the Foreign Ministry called for Danes to be cautious in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Juste, the newspaper editor, said the drawing “were, according to our understanding, sober and were not meant to be offensive.” He denied that the drawings were part of a campaign against Muslims, saying “I categorically must reject that.”

Two Saudi employees of Arla Foods were hit by angry customers in separate incidents, but neither was seriously injured, Arla spokesman Louis Illum Honore said.

EVACUATION: Earlier the offices of the Danish newspaper were evacuated due to a bomb threat on Tuesday.