Fifty-seven Islamic countries on Sunday agreed to hold a meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Muller over the controversial Mohammad cartoons, the Danish Foreign Ministry said in Copenhagen.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an association of 57 Islamic countries, agreed to meet with Muller in an effort to end the days-long protests by Muslims worldwide over the caricatures, which were slammed as an "insult" to the Prophet Mohammad.

The cartoons were first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten daily and then reprinted in other European countries.

The OIC demanded an official apology from the Danish government at the beginning of the wave of protests 10 days ago.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he regretted the offense caused by the illustrations, while defending his country's long tradition of freedom of expression.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2006)