Thousands of Lebanese protesters chanting "Death to America, Death to Israel" marched through Beirut's Shia suburbs today in protest against a film made in the United States which mocks the Prophet Muhammad.
"America, hear us - don't insult our Prophet," chanted the marchers at the demonstration, called for by the leader of the Shia Muslim group Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
The protest stayed well away from the US mission on the city's northeastern suburbs.
Mr Nasrallah made a rare public appearance to address the protest.
"Prophet of God, we offer ourselves, our blood and our kin for the sake of your dignity and honour," said Mr Nasrallah, who has lived in hiding to avoid assassination since Hezbollah fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006.
Today’s protest followed a three-day visit to Lebanon by Pope Benedict, who used his trip to call for reconciliation between Muslims and Christians.
On Friday, one person was killed in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli in protests against the film which depicts the prophet as a womaniser and homosexual.
The US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was killed last week in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi.
Elsewhere today, protesters in Afghanistan and Indonesia burnt US flags and chanted "Death to America" in demonstrations against the film.
Indonesian police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who massed outside the US embassy in Jakarta.
In Kabul, thousands of protesters took to the streets, setting fire to cars and shops and throwing stones at police.capital of the most populous Muslim nation.
The United States has sent ships, extra troops and special forces to protect its interests and citizens in the Middle East while a number of its embassies have evacuated staff and are on high alert for trouble.
Rallies also took place in London, Australia, Turkey and Pakistan yesterday, showing the global scale of the outrage.
In other developments today, Iran said it would hunt for those responsible for making the film.
"The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns this inappropriate and offensive action," First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said.
"Certainly it will search for, track, and pursue this guilty person who has insulted 1.5 billion Muslims in the world."
Iranian officials have demanded that the United States apologise to Muslims for the film, saying it is only the latest in a series of Western insults aimed at Islam's holy figures.
The head of Lebanon's Iranian-allied Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, called for protests in Beirut this week and said the United States must be held accountable.
"All these developments are being orchestrated by US intelligence," he said.
The identity of those directly responsible for the film is still unclear. Clips posted online since July have been attributed to a man named Sam Bacile, which two people connected with the film have said was probably an alias.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, a Coptic Christian widely linked to the film in media reports, was questioned in California on Saturday by US authorities investigating possible violations of his probation for a bank fraud conviction.
