Several thousand Muslims turned out in London yesterday to demonstrate against the controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed - but the numbers were far lower than the 30,000 the organisers hoped would take part.

There was a significant police presence at the demonstration, as protestors waved banners proclaiming: United Against Incitement And Islamophobia.

Earlier, there were fears that the rally, backed by Mayor Ken Livingstone and a coalition of moderate Muslim groups, would be disrupted by extremist factions in the row over the images that first appeared in a Danish newspaper four months ago.

But most of those gathered in Trafalgar Square said they wanted to prove Islam was peaceful and that demonstrations could be held peacefully.

Meanwhile, as protests continued around the world, Iran yesterday rejected US and Danish accusations that it had inflamed and encouraged violent protests, and demanded an apology.

It was responding to comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said: "Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes."

Last night, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for dialogue to calm the uproar over the cartoons.

"Right now, there's megaphone diplomacy," Annan told Denmark's national broadcaster DR. "I think we should turn off the megaphones and begin to talk quietly to each other."