AFP - Denmark will next week host a seminar aiming to promote dialogue between different religious groups in Iraq, the foreign Minister said Monday.
"I have ... taken the initiative for Denmark to host next week a seminar with the participation of religious leaders from a number of Iraqi communities, including Christians and Muslims, to promote dialogue between religious groups in Iraq," Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen said in a statement.
"The seminar is organized by Copenhagen Diocese with support from the Foreign Ministry. The seminar is an extension of a similar seminar in 2008," she said.
A spokesman for the Danish foreign ministry said 20 religious leaders were invited to the seminar, including Sunni, Shia, and Christian leaders from Iraq.
The minister announced the seminar in a statement condemning the attacks on a Coptic church that left 21 dead in the Egyptian city of Alexandria Saturday and pleaded for religious tolerance.
"I find that it is vital that every believer has the opportunity to exercise their religious beliefs without fear," Espersen was quoted as saying.
The publication in 2005 by a Danish daily of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed was heavily criticised by Muslim groups and later led to protests across the Muslim world.
Last week, Scandinavian intelligence agencies said they stopped what was a plan to kill as many possible in a terror attack at the Copenhagen office of the Jyllands-Posten daily.
Espersen has previously tried to defuse tension over the caricature crisis.
In September, she met with ambassadors from 17 Muslim countries ahead of the publication of a book on the caricature issue.
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