As al Qaeda vowed to wage its Holy War until the West was "defeated", the Vatican prepared on Monday to launch a diplomatic drive to explain the pope's words on Islam .
The enraged reactions in many parts of the Muslim world to Benedict's comments last week were all the result of "a hurried reading" of the pontiff's speech" in Regensburg, the Vatican's new 'foreign minister' insisted .
"One of my priorities will be to push ahead with dialogue," said Monsignor Dominique Mamberti in an interview with an Italian radio network .
Meanwhile, Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone has instructed all papal nuncios in Muslim countries to set about explaining the meaning of the pope's references to the prophet Mohammed, Islam and violence .
Adding a new edge to the recent wave of fury over the pope's words was a message posted on an Internet website, apparently by the Iraqi cell of al Qaeda .
In response to what it called the "denigration" of Islam and the Jihad by the pope, the cell promised to continue the Holy War until the "defeat" of the West and until the flag of Islam waved over the entire world .
Another group, Ansar al Sunna, which has claimed numerous killings and attacks in Iraq, said the day was near when "the armies of Islam will destroy the walls of Rome" .
Benedict tried on Sunday to placate Muslim anger over the comments he made during a lecture at his old university in Bavaria .
In his Angelus address he said that he was sorry that a passage in that lecture, quoting from a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, had been considered "offensive to the sensibilities of Muslims" .
"These words were in fact a quotation from a medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought," he said .
"I hope that this serves to placate souls and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect" .
UNSATISFIED. But many of the Muslim leaders who had earlier demanded that the pope apologise for his remarks were unsatisfied .
Ali Bardakoglu, Turkey's leading Islamic cleric, complained that the pope had only produced an "indirect" apology, but saying he was "sorry for his words" but only sorry that he had been misinterpreted .
In Tehran, where there was another small demonstration in front of the apostolic nunciature on Monday, a government spokesman said the pope's regrets on Sunday were insufficient .
"He must say that what he affirmed was wrong," the spokesman said .
The supreme Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, warned all Muslim to beware of "plots that target Islam and its sacred values" .
It emerged on Monday that the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has sent a letter to Benedict saying that he should respect the values of reason and tolerance which were part of the Islamic faith .
In his address at the University of Regensberg in Germany on Tuesday, Benedict quoted from a book recounting a dialogue on Christianity and Islam between Manuel Paleologos II, a 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor, and a Persian scholar .
The pope quoted the emperor as saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached" .
Benedict made it clear he was quoting and described the phrases on Islam as surprisingly "brusque" .
He did not explicitly agree or disagree with the emperor's views .
He said, clearly and in his own words, that "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul" .
