Khaled Meshaal told a Press conference that Hamas “is prepared to play a role in calming the situation between the Islamic world and Western countries on condition that these countries commit themselves to putting an end to attacks against the feelings of Muslims.”

Speaking in Cairo on Wednesday, Meshaal had said the Western Press was “playing with fire” with the publication of the cartoons, which had led to riots across the Muslim world.

He added that “the Christian West, which is provoking the feelings fo the Muslim nation, should change its attitudes.”

Shortly after its January 25 victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas called for Arab and Muslim nations to boycott Danish products. It was the September publication of the blasphemous cartoons in a Danish newspaper that set off a chain of events that led to the current furore.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Muslims turned a religious ceremony yesterday into a peaceful protest against the publication of a series of blasphemous cartoons in the Western media.

The European Union sought to calm tension, calling for a voluntary media code of conduct to avoid further inflaming religious sensibilities, while the United States accused Iran and Syria of deliberately stoking Muslim rage.

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group pledged no compromise until there was a full apology from Denmark and European countries passed laws prohibiting insults against the prophet.

“Today, we are defending the dignity of our prophet with a word, a demonstration, but let (US President) George Bush and the arrogant world know that if we have to ... we will defend our prophet with our blood, not our voices,” Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told the crowd.

The annual Shia mourning ceremonies mark the martyrdom of the prophet’s grandson, Imam Hussein, in Iraq 1,300 years ago. Security sources put the turnout in Beirut at 400,000.

Aid workers from Denmark were told to stay away from the ceremonies for fear of reprisals.