Danish embassy in Jakarta may reopen

Denmark's ambassador to Indonesia has returned to Jakarta after having evacuated the embassy, because of violent protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Denmark's ambassador to Indonesia has returned to Jakarta after having evacuated the embassy building earlier this month, because of violent protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, an official from the mission said on Wednesday.

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"The ambassador plans to reopen the embassy as soon as possible and that's the reason for him coming back", an embassy official said, adding however that not all staff were yet back in the country.

The mission staff had evacuated Jakarta on February 11, after an extremist group issued death threats against them, in protest against the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper in 2005.

A Jakarta police spokesman said that security would be boosted around the building housing the embassy, although he said no request to do this had yet been received.

"But even without a demand, it is our obligation to reinforce our security for the embassy and its staff, especially after the recent events there," he said.

The official declined to give details about the heightened security but said it would be "much more than usual."

Protests over the cartoons had been largely peaceful in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, but a group of hardliners had stormed the lobby of the building housing the embassy on February 3, smashing lamps and running amok.