TRIPOLI (Reuters) -- About 10 Libyans were killed in clashes with police when they tried to storm an Italian consulate in Libya on Friday in protests against Danish cartoons insulting the Prophet Mohammad (S), Italian officials said.

Libya said there had been deaths but gave no figure, as Muslims anger against the cartoons flared anew in parts of the world. "Eleven casualties, including dead, resulted from the clashes," a Libyan government statement said. Italy's ambassador to Tripoli, Francesco Trupiano, told Reuters: "The number of dead is not official, or definitive, because until the clashes are over it's hard to say. But there are certainly about 10 (dead)."

The protesters set fire to the Danish flag and cars as they attempted to storm the Italian consulate in Benghazi, the only Western diplomatic mission in the eastern Libyan city.

Libyan state TV showed footage of stone-throwing protesters and security forces with guns in streets round a scorched building. The footage contained what sounded like gunshots.

"They should send in the military here. The police can't keep them back. It's getting worse here," a consulate employee, identified as Antonio Simoes Goncalves, told Sky Italia TV.

Weeks of sometimes violent protests by Muslims across the world against the cartoons have triggered fears of a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam. Muslims believe images of the Prophet are forbidden.

A Muslim cleric in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar and his followers offered rewards amounting to more than $1 million during Friday prayers for anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew the caricatures.

"If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden ... we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy Prophet," cleric Maulana Yousef Qureshi told Reuters.

Qureshi said he had offered a bounty of 500,000 rupees ($8,400) to anyone who killed a Danish cartoonist. Two of his congregation put up additional rewards of $1 million and one million rupees. "This is not the first time we've been threatened," one of the 12 cartoonists involved said on condition of anonymity. "The drawing I made was meant as a practical joke ... and yet I have been dragged into this absurd situation."

On Friday, thousands rallied in Pakistan, Bangladeshi police blocked demonstrators heading for the Danish embassy, and Indian police fired teargas and used batons to beat back hundreds of protesters who stoned shops in the city of Hyderabad.

In New York, about 2,000 Muslims gathered near the Danish consulate carrying placards reading "Prophet Mohammad, a man of peace" and "Spread peace not hate". Thousands of Muslims marched through the Tanzanian capital Dar Es Salaam. ------------------------ Denmark's Pakistan embassy closed

Protests in Pakistan this week have resulted in at least five deaths, and on Friday it became the latest country where Denmark has decided to temporarily close its embassy. Denmark urged any Danes in Pakistan to leave as soon as possible.

The cartoons were first published in Denmark in September, but last month newspapers and magazines in Europe and elsewhere began republishing to assert freedom of expression principles.

Pakistan said it was recalling its ambassador from Copenhagen for consultations. It did not elaborate. The Danish ambassador in Islamabad said relations had not been broken off because of the furor.

Denmark has already shut missions in Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Indonesia as a result of violence or threats of violence.

Protests in Pakistan have been large and violent and many have taken on a distinctly anti-U.S. tone. In addition to burning Danish flags, demonstrators have attacked U.S. fast-food outlets and burned effigies of U.S. President George W. Bush.

Western leaders have been calling for calm.

French President Jacques Chirac and former U.S. President Bill Clinton both said it was a mistake to publish the cartoons.

Chirac told the India Today magazine: "I am appalled by what happened as a result of the publications of these cartoons. "I am, of course, in favor of the freedom of the press, which is a pillar of democracy. But I am equally for respecting everyone's sensibilities ... so I deplore the situation."

Clinton, on a private visit to Pakistan, said he saw nothing wrong with Muslims demonstrating peacefully but feared a great opportunity to improve understanding had been squandered.

"This is not a time to burn bridges. This is a time to build them," he said.