Nato's incoming chief has said that he would carefully consider religious sensibilities in his new post, as he seeks to allay Muslim concerns over his appointment.
Speaking in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Monday, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark's former prime minister, called for a balance between free speech and a respect for religion.
Turkey had threatened to veto his appointment due to his support for a Danish newspaper after its decision to print cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 prompted protests across the Muslim world.
"I would never myself depict any religious figure, including the Prophet Muhammad, in a way that could hurt other people's feelings," he said during the Alliance of Civilisations forum, a conference sponsored by Turkey and Spain to promote understanding between the Muslim world and the west.
"I was deeply distressed that the cartoons were seen by many Muslims as an attempt by Denmark to mark and insult or behave disrespectively towards Islam or the Prophet Muhammad. Nothing could be further from my mind," Rasmussen said.
Remorse over cartoons
The twelve cartoons that were published in Jyllands-Posten led to attacks on Danish and Western embassies and boycotts of their products.
Islamic law generally prohibits any depiction of the prophet for fear that it may lead to idolotry.
In anticipation of his speech, the Turkish media had reported that Rasmussen would apologise for his previous position of defending Jyllands-Posten's right to publish the cartoons.
In the event, Rasmussen expressed remorse and disappointment, but was careful not to apologise, citing the sanctity of freedom of speech and his government's inability to be responsible for the actions of Denmark's free press.
Rasmussen also responded to Turkish requests to ban a Denmark-based channel that they accuse of being a mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union but Rasmussen said that he would not examine the legal grounds for closing the channel unless the station was proven to have links to terrorists.
Obama's intervention