COPENHAGEN (AFP) - A majority of Danes are opposed to the apology the daily Politiken made last month to Muslims for possibly offending them by reproducing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in 2008.

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The poll found that 51 percent were against the apology while 31 percent supported the daily, which was the first Danish newspaper to formally apologise over the cartoons.

The survey of 1,009 people by the Megafon Institute on March 3 and 4 for Politiken and TV2 television also found that 14 percent thought the apology to be neither good nor bad, while five percent declined to respond.

Politiken's apology was widely condemned by Danish politicians, who charged that the paper had caved in to pressure and had sacrificed freedom of expression, which is considered a cornerstone of Danish democracy.

The cartoons, including one featuring Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse, angered many Muslims worldwide and sparked angry protests in January and February 2006.

The protests culminated with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and the death of dozens of people in Nigeria.

In 2008, around 20 Danish newspapers, including Politiken, reproduced the drawings following a failed attack against one of the cartoonists, sparking further protests in a number of Muslim countries, including Sudan, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia.