A Pakistani Muslim cleric and his followers have offered rewards amounting to more than $US1 million ($1.35 million) for killing one of the Danish cartoonists, who have been under police protection since the storm of protest broke out.

"If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden and Zawahri we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy prophet," cleric Maulana Yousef Qureshi said, referring to the al-Qaeda leader and his henchman Ayman al- Zawahiri. At Friday prayers in the city of Peshawar, he set a bounty of 500,000 rupees ($11,255) and two of his congregation put up rewards of $US1 million ($1.35 million) and one million rupees plus a car.

Reuters via Courier Mail

Reporters were ushered into the briefing room, which had a large map of the Middle East projected on the wall, but Mr. Bush did not comment on Iraq while there, or discuss the focus of the briefing.

Later in the day, in Orlando, at Disney's Contemporary Resort, he did speak about Iraq, at a fund-raiser for the Florida Republican party, raising $3 million. "Isn't it fun watching a government be formed by some of the same people who have just been living under the thumb" of Saddam Hussein? Mr. Bush asked the political contributors. ~ ( Saturday, Feb. 18, 2006 The New York Times, "Bush Urges Wider Role For NATO In Darfur" )