GAZA (AFP) - Islamic militants threatened to kill European nationals as the crisis over cartoons of Mohammed intensified, while in Europe more media rallied in support of freedom of expression and refused to give way to Muslim anger.

Two armed Palestinian groups, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs brigades and the Popular Resistance Committee, said they considered as legitimate targets any citizen of France, Denmark and Norway, the three countries where 12 irreverent depictions of the prophet have been printed in their entirety.

Gunmen forced the closure of the EU's headquarters in Gaza City, and in the West Bank Norway said it was shutting its mission in response to the threats which it was taking "very seriously."

Demonstrations were staged in Pakistan where protesters in Lahore and Multan chanted "Death to Denmark" and burned Danish and French flags.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai condemned publication of the cartoons as "an insult to more than one billion Muslims," while Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak warned of "the near and long term repercussions of the campaign of insults" which could lead to "radicalism and terrorism."

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's radical Shiite movement Hezbollah said that if Muslims had killed British writer Salman Rushdie in accordance with the 1989 religious edict from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then "this rabble who insult our prophet Mohammed ... would not have dared to do so."

What began in September as a smouldering row over a Danish paper's decision to publish images of Mohammed turned into a major diplomatic stand-off after a Norwegian magazine followed suit last month, sparking a series of denunciations and trade boycotts across the Muslim world.

On Wednesday stand-off turned to crisis as French newspaper France-Soir reprinted all 12 cartoons, one of which portrays the prophet with a bomb-shaped turban and another shows him warning suicide bombers at the gates of heaven that there are no more virgins.

With Europe and the Muslim world glaring in mutual incomprehension, calls to smooth over the crisis were ignored as more publications said they would print the pictures as a matter of principle.

In France the authoritative daily Le Monde published its own front-page depiction of Mohammed: a drawing by cartoonist Plantu showing a bearded prophet made up of the words "I must not draw Mohammed" written repeatedly in long-hand in the style of a schoolboy's punishment lines.

"A Muslim may well be shocked by a picture of Mohammed, especially an ill-intentioned one. But a democracy cannot start policing people's opinions, except by trampling the rights of man underfoot," Le Monde said in an editorial.

The left-wing newspaper Liberation said it would publish two of the 12 cartoons in its Friday edition along with six pages of comment on the affair, while the satirical weekly Charlie-Hebdo said next week's paper will feature all 12 pictures.

"We are going to do it as a matter of principle and to express solidarity with France Soir and our Danish colleagues," said editor Philippe Val.

"This is an inviolable question of principle here in the land of Voltaire and Zola. We are willing to appear before the courts if some think the drawings go too far, but we are certainly not willing to give way to the desires of religious extremists," he said.

Meanwhile the editor of France Soir, Jacques Lefranc, who was sacked overnight by the paper's French-Egyptian owner Raymond Lakah because of the cartoons, challenged his dismissal saying it was "questionable in both reasoning and method. I reserve the option to contest it."

Several newspapers in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland have printed single images of the cartoons to illustrate their news stories.

In Jordan gossip tabloid Al-Shihan defiantly published three of the cartoons, as well as an editorial which began: "Muslims of the world, be reasonable. "What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?" the paper asked.

In London the BBC broadcast grabs of the cartoons as they appeared in newspapers.

"To give audiences an understanding of the strong feelings evoked by the story, as part of our report we show brief glimpses of the newspaper coverage of the cartoons.

We are only showing these within the context of full reports of the debate," the BBC said