COPENHAGEN, Feb 13: Denmark’s foreign minister said on Monday a government apology for the cartoons would be pointless. “First, you cannot apologise for something you have not done,” Per Stig Moeller told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

“Second, nothing illegal has been done because no one has been found guilty by a court.”

Angry protesters around the Muslim world have called on Denmark to apologise for the publication of the 12 cartoons in Jyllands-Posten in September.

The paper apologised on Jan 30 for offending Muslims but stood by its decision to print the drawings, citing freedom of speech.

Denmark repeatedly has said it cannot interfere with the media. Mr Moeller rejected the idea of a government apology.

“It would be pointless to give an apology,” he said. “It’s not for the government to judge it, but for the courts of law.”

He said no one had foreseen the cartoons would trigger such massive uproar throughout the Muslim world.

“There is no doubt that a lot of feelings have been hurt in the Muslim world,” he said. “It is difficult to tackle.”

The foreign minister said he could not see an end to the conflict anytime soon.

Mr Moeller said he had no immediate plans for foreign diplomatic visits to calm the outrage.

PM stirs controversy: Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday met a moderate Muslim group to discuss the fallout from the derogatory cartoons and was promptly criticised for cutting out more radical Muslim representatives.

“A false image of Denmark has been given, that of a closed, an intolerant society. And I am happy to see that members of the (Democratic Muslim) network have made efforts to correct this image as far as possible, because it does not reflect the truth about Denmark,” Rasmussen told reporters after the meeting.

In the runup to Monday’s discussion, the prime minister’s office said “the objective of the meeting is to start a dialogue with Danes of Muslim faith about, among other things, integration and the current situation.”

“Our aim is to show that there are many Danish Muslims who are sad to see their country vilified abroad, and who are seeking dialogue and not confrontation,” Fathi El-Abed, one of founders of the Democratic Muslims group, said at the weekend.

But Tim Jensen, an Islam expert at Odense university, said Rasmussen was wrong to exclude more traditional Muslims from talks.

“The head of government is sending a wrong signal by talking to well-integrated, educated Muslims, intellectuals, and Westernised women who don’t wear headscarves, but not the others,” he told AFP.

“It’s nothing special to be tolerant if we only tolerate those who are like us,” he said.

According to polls, most Danes hold their country’s Imams responsible for fanning the crisis, especially the leader of the Islamic Community in Denmark, Ahmed Abu Laban.—AFP