Continued anger over the depiction of the Muslim prophet Muhammad in cartoons led to the burning of the Danish embassy in Beirut and calls for the kidnapping and torture of Danes in Iraq.

In Beirut on Sunday, thousands of demonstrators, armed with sticks and stones and waving green Islamic flags, took part in the protest but only a small group tried to break the security barrier.

Security forces fired tear gas and water cannons, but some managed to get into the 10-storey building.

Demonstrators attacked police officers with stones and set fire to several fire engines, according to eyewitness reports, while authorities fired bullets over the crowd.

Security forces said at least 30 people were injured, including police officers, fire fighters and protesters. One man fell to his death.

A security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said embassy staff had emptied the building two days ago in anticipation of protests.

Protesters also stoned the nearby St. Maroun Church, one of the city's main Maronite Catholic churches, as well as private buildings in Ashrafieh, the Christian area in which the Danish embassy is located.

Later Sunday, Interior Minister Hassan Sabei, a Sunni Muslim, submitted his resignation during an emergency cabinet meeting chaired by President Emile Lahoud, although it isn't clear if his resignation had been accepted.

The violence came one day after thousands of protesters in neighbouring Syria set the Danish and Norwegian embassies ablaze.

Militant groups in Iraq called for the kidnapping and torture of Danes.

In a statement released over the Internet, the Islamic Army urged militants to kidnap Danes and "cut them into as many pieces as the number of newspapers that printed the cartoons."

Another group, the military wing of the Army of the Right, handed out leaflets in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi urging attacks on Danish and non-Muslim targets in Iraq.

There are about 500 Danish soldiers serving in Iraq.

Iraq's trade ministry froze contracts with Denmark and Norway.

Outrage over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad is being portrayed as the driving force behind the protests. A Danish newspaper first printed the cartoons in late September. Some European newspapers reprinted them last week. The Philadelphia Inquirer reprinted one cartoon on Sunday.

The drawings have touched a raw nerve in part because Islamic law bans any images of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Muslim Canadian Congress's Tarek Fatah says the anger has been fuelled not only by the depiction of Muhammad, but more so at the "mockery with which these cartoons were made."

One cartoon showed Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb, while another had him telling apparent suicide bombers that there were no virgins left in paradise.

"That is the primary basis of why there is so much sadness," he said, appearing on CTV Newsnet.

"Of course the reaction in the Middle East is equally outrageous and has offended Muslims in Canada."

Leaders appeal for calm

As the violence continues to escalate, world leaders and prominent Muslims are appealing for calm.

"God instructs us to forgive, therefore we, as much as we condemn it strongly we must stay above this dispute," said Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai.

In the Afghan city of Mihtarlam, some 3,000 demonstrators burned a Danish flag and demanded that the editors at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten be prosecuted for blasphemy, Gov. Sher Mohammed Safi said.

The Danish foreign minister Stig Moeller said: "enough is enough."

"Now it has become more than a case about the drawings: Now there are forces that wants a confrontation between our cultures," he said. "It is in no one's interest, neither them or us."

Lebanese Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani urged Muslims to exercise restraint.

"We don't want the expression of our condemnation (of the cartoons) to be used by some to portray a distorted image of Islam," he said. "Today is a big test for us. Let our expression of condemnation be according to the values of Islam."

Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, a prominent scholar in Qatar, joined the ranks of other Muslims condemning the torched embassies.

Qaradawi told Arabic television Al Jazeera that Muslims should instead demonstrate their opposition by boycotting goods of nations who published the cartoons.

"We call on Muslims to show their fury in a logical and controlled manner," Qaradawi said.

"We didn't ask people to burn embassies as some have done in Damascus and Beirut. We asked people to boycott products ... We don't sanction destruction and torching because this is not in line with morality or Muslim behaviour," he said, referring to calls to boycott he made during a sermon on Friday.

In Britain, a senior opposition politician called for authorities to deal with militant protesters after a rally in London which featured signs reading "Europe you will pay, your 9/11 will come" and "Butcher those who mock Islam."

"Clearly some of these placards are incitement to violence and, indeed, incitement to murder, an extremely serious offence which the police must deal with and deal with quickly," said David Davis, the Conservative Party home affairs spokesman.

"Whatever your views on these cartoons, we have a tradition of freedom of speech in this country which has to be protected. Certainly there can be no tolerance of incitement to murder."

With a report from CTV's Joy Malbon