The editor of the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten apologized on Monday for printing a series of cartoons last September.
The cartoons, which were reprinted earlier this month in a Norwegian magazine, were perceived as offensive to Muslims and snowballed into a diplomatic fallout between Denmark and several Muslim countries.
The pictures angered Muslim communities which regard images of the prophet as blasphemous and saw in the cartoons a smear campaign against the Muslim community.
One of the cartoons apparently depicted the prophet with a bomb-shaped turban.
The paper’s editor, Carsten Juste, stressed in a message posted on the paper’s website that the drawings were not intended to be offensive, and did not contradict Danish law, “but they have indisputably offended many Muslims, for which we apologize.”
The cartoons previously generated wide condemnations and calls to boycott Danish products in Muslim communities.
Saudi Arabia, Libya and Kuwait withdrew ambassadors to Copenhagen in protest.
Other governments and Muslim groups expressed strong dissatisfaction with what they saw as a deliberate insult to Islam.
The Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab League have announced following the publication that they intend to request a resolution from the United Nations that prohibits offending religions.
Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in an interview that the Danish government cannot apologize on behalf of the paper, and stressed that in a democratic country, independent media cannot be edited by the government.