At least 10 people are dead and several injured in violent clashes outside the Italian consulate in Libya over the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, according to an Italian diplomat.

An Italian consular official, Antonio Simoes-Concalves, told The Associated Press that the protesters were killed in the Libyan city of Bengazi as armed police fired bullets and tear gas on a crowd of more than 1,000 protesters Friday.

Libyan security officials said 11 people had been killed or hurt in total, but did not elaborate nor provide a breakdown.

No Italians were injured, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

Security officials said the demonstrators lobbed stones and bottles at the consulate, and later entered the grounds and set fire to the building.

According to unconfirmed reports, the protesters are angry at Italian minister Roberto Calderoli, who had worn a T-shirt showing the caricatures.

Cleric offers bounty

A leading Pakistani cleric has offered a 1.5 million rupee reward and a car to anyone who kills the cartoonist who drew Prophet Muhammad, reports say.

Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi, prayer leader at the historic Mohabat Khan mosque in Peshawar, announced he would give a 1.5 million rupee ($25,000 US) reward and a car for killing the cartoonist of the prophet pictures that appeared first in a Danish newspaper, AP reported.

"This is an unanimous decision of by all imams of Islam that whoever insults the prophet deserves to be killed and whoever will take this insulting man to his end, will get this prize," Qureshi was quoted as saying by AP.

Qureshi also said a local jewellers' association would hand over $1 million US, although no representative of the association was available to confirm it had made the offer, AP reported.

More arrests

Meanwhile, another Islamic leader is under house arrest and hundreds of protesters have been detained in Pakistan amid fears of more violent riots against publication of the cartoons, which satirize the Prophet Muhammad.

Thousands of security forces were deployed across the country to prevent unrest and police were ordered to restrict the movements of all religious leaders who might lead more violent rallies.

A senior police official in the eastern city of Lahore told AP that around 125 protesters had been detained for violating a ban on rallies.

In Multan, a city in the Punjab province, police swooped on protesters who had gathered Friday morning at a traffic circle, calling themselves "slaves of the prophet" and trampling on a Danish flag, Sharif Zafar, a police official, told AP.

Protesters shouted "Death to Musharraf!" as they were bundled into two police buses, referring to Pakistan's leader, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

At least five people died in Pakistan and Western businesses were burned after protests against the cartoons turned violent this week.

The cartoons, first published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September and reprinted in several European countries last month, have angered Muslims worldwide.

Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits any depiction of Allah and the Prophet.

More protests

Meanwhile, in Karachi Friday, police fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse about 2,000 protesters, many wielding sticks, who blocked the main highway into the southern city, said Alim Jafari, a Karachi police official. The road was cleared and some 30 protesters were detained, he said.

And in Hong Kong, thousands of Muslims, mostly Pakistanis, Indians, Indonesians and Sri Lankans living in the territory, angrily chanted slogans as they marched from a downtown mosque to the local office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"Don't play with our religion," read a placard held up by a protester. "No double standards. We want justice!" read another.

More anti-cartoon protests took place in other Pakistani cities Friday, including Rawalpindi, Quetta and Peshawar -- the northwestern city ravaged by riots on Wednesday.

Police were guarding multinational businesses and government buildings, witnesses told AP.

Some reports say many of the businesses attacked in Pakistan have nothing to do with the cartoons and the demonstrations have been more of a show of strength by the country's hardline Islamic parties.