Angry Iranian demonstrators stormed Danish and Norwegian embassies in Tehran for the second consecutive day on Tuesday in protest against cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad published in the two countries.

A group of demonstrators threw stone and firebomb at Norwegian embassy on Tuesday evening, hours after the Danish embassy suffered a similar attack during which some protestors managed to climb over the gate and entered the embassy compound briefly.

On Monday evening, demonstrators forced their way into the compound of Danish embassy but were immediately driven out by police using tear gas.

On Monday afternoon, about 200 demonstrators burnt flags of several concerned European countries in front of the Austrian embassy.

Iran's Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei on Tuesday denounced the European media's publication of the cartoons as "a shameful measure by the Western liberal democrats in support of freedom of speech".

"While in accordance with this freedom of speech, denial of the Holocaust has been banned, but sacrilege against the sanctities of 1.5 billion Muslims has been allowed," Khamenei was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying at a gathering of the Air Force.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi, meanwhile, urged the concerned European countries to apologize and compensate for their mistake as soon as possible.

He also called on the Iranians to calm down in order to "avoid giving any excuse to the enemies".

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who slammed the publication of the cartoons as an "insult" to Islam, ordered on Saturday the establishment of a committee to study canceling contracts with European countries where the cartoons were published.

Iran's Commercial Ministry on Tuesday banned import of Danish products.

Danish daily Jyllands-Poste first published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad last September, including one depicting him wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

Over the past few days, the cartoons, which were reprinted in some other European press, have provoked widespread protests and boycott of Danish products in the Muslim world.

On Sunday, Lebanese demonstrators torched the Danish consulate in Beirut, one day after Syrian protestors set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus to vent anger.

Jyllands-Poste's editor offered an apology late Monday for offending Muslims, after refusing to apologize for publishing the caricatures, citing the right to freedom of expression.

Source: Xinhua