A Swedish artist facing death threats over a drawing of the Prophet Mohammed has sold more than 20 copies to private collectors.

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The demand among private art collectors to buy a signed copy of Lars Vilks' controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog is high.

"The interest for the drawings is pretty high. I have so far sold around 20 pieces. It is a scanned version on better quality paper and signed," the artist told the Helsingborgs Dagbladet newspaper, adding he experienced no moral dilemma.

"To sell a provocative and offensive picture is not something that I see as problematic. So far it has also only concerned private purchases. If an institution would buy it in, it would most certainly be regarded in a different way," Vilks said.

The Swedish 63-year-old artist also told AFP that he no longer feared an American woman dubbed "JihadJane", who pleaded not guilty to an assassination plot in Sweden.

"JihadJane is not a problem to me because even if she would be considered not guilty after her trial ... and if she was freed, I don't think she would be dangerous anymore,"he said .

Blond-haired, green-eyed Pennsylvania resident Colleen LaRose, 46, who on the Internet dubbed herself JihadJane, pleaded not guilty in a Philadelphia court Thursday to recruiting Islamic militants and agreeing to murder a Swedish artist.

The targeted artist's name has not been revealed, but he is widely believed to be Vilks, whose 2007 drawing of the Muslim prophet prompted protests and numerous death threats against him.

An Al-Qaeda front organisation went so far as to offer 150,000 dollars to anyone who slit Vilks' throat or 100,000 dollars for his murder by other means.

The US Justice Department has declined to comment on whether LaRose was connected to the arrest of seven people in Ireland last week suspected of plotting to kill Vilks.

Five of those arrested have since been released without charge.

Vilks, who Thursday said he in recent days had received more than 500 text messages saying "You are going to die, and variations of that," insisted he was no longer worried about LaRose.

"To me (JihadJane) can be freed," he said, pointing out that she was now known to the police and would be kept under surveillance.

"It is the same thing with the guys in Ireland. If they are let loose I don't think they can go on working like they did, they're still under suspicion," he said.

With all the commotion surrounding the recent revelations of alleged assassination plots against him, Vilks said he for the time being felt relatively safe.

"The problems will arrive later when things have calmed down," he said, pointing out that "I have become some kind of star in this world" and will likely continue being a prime target for Muslim extremists.