Directed by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, the short film Fitna was yesterday removed from the British Internet site that first posted it just two days earlier, after the website's staff received death threats. But a Sunday Times check showed that it was still available for viewing on other websites.

'This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the Net but we have to place the safety and well-being of our staff above all else,' said a statement on the video-sharing website, Liveleak.

Fitna - 'strife' in Arabic - sets violent imagery of the terror attacks in New York and Madrid against text from the Quran.

'There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence,' said UN chief Ban Ki Moon. 'The right of free speech is not at stake here.

'The real fault line is not between Muslim and Western societies, as some would have us believe but between small minorities of extremists, on different sides, with a vested interest in stirring hostility and conflict.'

Likewise, the Council of Europe said that the film was a 'distasteful manipulation' which exploits fear.

The World Council of Churches said that Fitna failed to distinguish extremism from mainstream Islam.

'Extremism is a problem for most religions and needs to be countered through inter-religious dialogue,' said the Council's Reverend Dr Shanta Premawardhana.

The world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, called the film 'misleading and full of racism'.

Mr Din Syamsuddin, the leader of Indonesia's Muhammadiyah Islamic group, was quoted by state news agency Antara as saying that the film was 'unacceptable'.

'This proves that the West is not serious in upholding democracy and tolerance,' he said. 'Freedom of expression that they create is unethical.'

Malaysia's Foreign Ministry slammed Mr Wilders yesterday.

'Portraying Islam as a religion advocating extremism is not only misleading and erroneous but also shows blatant disregard and utter disrespect for Islam and the sensitiveness of the Muslim world,' it said in a statement.

The strongest response in the Muslim world came from Pakistan, where about 40 supporters of the hardline Islamist party Jamaat-i-Islami staged a protest in Karachi, chanting 'death to the film-maker'.

The country's government summoned the Dutch ambassador to express its outrage over the short film.

The Dutch government, fearing a repeat of violence similar to that sparked by the Prophet Muhammad cartoon controversy in 2005, has distanced itself from the film and Islamic leaders in the country have called for calm.

Some of Denmark's embassies in the Muslim world were attacked after the publication of the cartoon caricatures in a Danish newspaper. Estimates are that more than 100 people died in the ensuing violence.

A poll published on Friday showed that almost a third of all Dutch people had seen Fitna or parts of it - although the TNS Nipo polling institute said that fears of similar reprisals lessened after the viewing.

But Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende cautioned against drawing easy conclusions.

'We are not past it yet...Sometimes it can take months before the true repercussions are felt,' he told journalists.

Mr Wilders himself rejected responsibility for any retaliation against Dutch nationals or interests abroad.

Pointing to a quiet first night in the Netherlands, he said: 'I hope it doesn't happen but even if it does, the people who commit such acts are responsible, not me.'

Meanwhile, another controversy was brewing - a German Muslim group said that protests were likely at today's world premiere of a play based on Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses in a theatre in Potsdam.

AFP, AP, Reuters, Bernama