THE HAGUE, 11/03/08 - Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who provoked fury in Muslim countries with his cartoons, has criticised the way the Dutch government talks about MP Geert Wilders' Koran film.

Most Dutch politicians, including Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, do not think Wilders should broadcast the film. "Not one politician in Denmark would say this. It would mean their political ruin. Danish politicians know that you shoud not restrict the freedom of speech," Westergaard said yesterday in an interview in De Volkskrant newspaper.

Westergaard received death threats because of the cartoon he drew in 2005, and had to go into hiding. Last month, three men who had plans to murder him were arrested. In Afghanistan, Dutch and Danish flags were set on fire in various places during the past few weeks.

It should be possible to say anything in democratic countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, in Westergaard's view. "That people were killed or injured? I regret this very much. But we, I, cannot be held responsible for this. The riots in 2006 were set in motion by regimes that cannot satisfy the needs of their own population. That is the problem."

Westergaard appealed to Wilders not to give way to the political pressure in the Netherlands to cancel the broadcast. "Wilders must release his film as planned. It was and is a question of the freedom to express opinions."