Iraqis have burned effigies of the pope and Al-Qaeda have vowed to pursue holy war, as an apology by the pontiff failed on Monday to quell anger in the Middle East. Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei said last week's controversial comments by Pope Benedict XVI linking Islam and violence were "links" in a US-Israeli conspiracy aimed at creating conflict between religions.
Jordan praised the 79-year-old leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics for "quickly" expressing his personal regrets over his remarks but said more steps were needed to contain Muslim anger.
Gulf newspapers meanwhile continued to criticise the pope, with one Saudi daily saying his remarks were beating the drums of war for the far right in the United States.
In his traditional Sunday blessing, the pope said he was "deeply sorry" for the outrage triggered by his speech at a German university last week and stressed that the passages he quoted did not express his personal opinion.
In his speech, the pope implicitly linked Islam to violence and quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who said innovations introduced by the Prophet Mohammed were "evil and inhuman."
Hundreds of angry Iraqis demonstrated against the pope in this southern Iraqi port city on Monday, burning him in effigy and calling for an apology.
The 500 protestors, followers of Ayatollah Mahmud al-Hassani, a mystical Shiite Muslin cleric, also burned German and American flags and called for the pope to be tried in an international court.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq warned in an Internet statement Monday that it will wage jihad, or holy war, until the West is defeated.
"We say to the servant of the cross (the pope): wait for defeat... We say to infidels and tyrants: wait for what will afflict you. We continue our jihad. We will not stop until the banner of unicity flies throughout the world," said the statement attributed to the Mujahedeen consultative council.
"We will smash the cross," it added, promising Muslims they would "conquer Rome... as they conquered Constantinople."
Another armed group linked to Al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sunna (Partisans of the Precepts of the Prophet), threatened in a website statement to attack the West -- Italy in particular.
Calling the pope "Satan's hellhound in the Vatican," the statement addressed to "Crusaders" said: "The day is coming when the armies of Islam will destroy the ramparts of Rome."
In Tehran, Iran's supreme leader Khamenei linked the pope's remarks to caricatures published in a Danish newspaper last year deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed. The cartoons set off deadly protests in the Muslim world.
"Leaders of the arrogant imperialists have already defined the links of the chain in this US-Zionist project by attacking Iraq," Khamenei said.
"The issue of insulting cartoons and remarks of some politicians about Islam are different links in the conspiracy of the crusaders and the pope's remarks are the latest links in this," he added.
In Jordan, a government spokesman said the pope's latest remarks represent "to an extent, a clarification of his point of view but for many this was not a sufficient apology
"It was a positive step in the right direction towards clarifying the pope's position," Jawdeh said. "We expect more steps."
In the Gulf, newspapers continued to slam the pope with Saudi Arabia's Al-Yom saying the pope's comments were not "an ordinary blunder requiring an apology."
"These remarks belong in a current of thought that is in total accord with the ideas of the extreme right in the United States on the conflict between civilisations," it said. "This ideology beats the drum of war even more."
A handful of Muslim groups have welcomed the papal apology.
Mohammed Habib, a senior member of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood, told AFP they considered the apology a retraction of the pope's statement.
