Lebanese demonstrators gather at the Danish consulate after setting fire to it in Beirut, capital city of Lebanon, on Feb. 5, 2006. Demonstrators set fire to the Danish consulate in Beirut on Sunday in a protest against cartoons blaspheming Prophet Mohammad, which were first published on a Danish newspaper. (Xinhua Photo)

   About 2,000 Lebanese staged a massive demonstration outside the Danish consulate in Beirut and the initially peaceful sit-inturned sour as protestors attempted to break through the security barrier which prompted the police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse them, witnesses said.

   The angry protestors then torched the consulate building, said witnesses, adding that several people fainted due to the tear gas, dozens of others were wounded in the clashes with the police and anumber of cars were set on fire.

   It was not immediately clear whether any casualties in the Danish consulate were caused.

   The protestors also marched through a Christian area near the Danish consulate, throwing stones and breaking classes of shops and churches.

   Witnesses said fierce clashes erupted between protestors and the police in the area and that the police fired into the air to disperse the crowd.

   The Danish government has urged its nationals in Lebanon to leave the country as soon as possible.

   Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and prominent Muslim clerics called for restraint on nationwide TV broadcast, condemning the use of violence as against the values of Islam.

   The violent demonstration in Beirut came against a backdrop of widespread protests in the Muslim world against newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

   Danish daily Jyllands-Poste first published the 12 cartoons last September, including one showing the Islamic religion's founder wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

   The cartoons, which are considered blasphemous by most Muslims, were then reprinted in some other European papers, which provoked an outrage in the Muslim world and a boycott of Danish products in most Muslim countries.

   On Saturday, demonstrators stormed and torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, Syria, in a protest against the publication of the cartoons.  Enditem