STOCKHOLM, Feb. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Denmark will host a conference next month to promote religious dialogue following the uproar over the Prophet Mohammad cartoons, according to reports reaching here from Copenhagen on Monday.

    The government will also give "a significant financial contribution" to a UN program aimed at overcoming prejudice between Islam and the West, and support an Islamic festival in Copenhagen, Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said in a statement.

    The conference on religious and cultural dialogue will take place in the Danish capital on March 10, ministry officials said.

    "This conference will bring together the prominent Islamic preacher Amr Khaled, two Islamic scholars from the Arab world and three Danish experts," Moeller said.

    He said the government was planning a range of initiatives to promote "respectful dialogue," partly drawing on advice given by Muslim countries.

    "In Denmark there is a genuine respect for the religious feelings of other people and we acknowledge that many Muslims felt gravely insulted by these controversial drawings," the foreign minister said.

    Ministry officials said they would contact Arab and international media to spread the minister's message, and posted a link of his videotaped statement on the ministry's web page.

    Danish daily Jyllands-Poste published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad last September. The cartoons, which are considered blasphemous by most Muslims, provoked an outrage in the Muslim world and a boycott of Danish products in most Muslim countries. Enditem