CAIRO, Feb. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Tuesday sought to calm Muslim anger and protest against controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. 

    Emerging from talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his second stop of a five-nation Middle East tour, Solana stressed "mutual respect" between the EU and the Islamic world.  

    Solana also asserted the importance of relations between the two sides, adding that controversy over the cartoons should never affect bilateral ties.

    Solana arrived here early Tuesday from Saudi Arabia on a two-day visit to Egypt as part of a regional tour which will also take him to Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Israel.

    Solana's visit, aimed to ease tensions between European countries and the Muslim world, came against a backdrop of worldwide protests by Muslims against newspaper cartoons depicting the Islam Prophet Mohammad.

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

    The controversial cartoons then appeared in some other publications in Europe and elsewhere, sparking widespread protests and a boycott of Danish products in the Muslim world. 

    Egypt, like most other Islamic countries, has harshly condemned the cartoons, but it also calls for calm and dialogue to contain the situation before it spirals out of control.

    Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Monday urged  the West and Muslim countries to engage in dialogue in a bid to "averta clash of civilizations" over the cartoons.

    "We are witnessing the early signs of a campaign and a clash between the West and Islam," said Abul Gheit. "It is therefore important and necessary to start dialogues to make understanding and peaceful coexistence between the two sides."  Enditem