Protest at US embassy in Tunisia

Tunisian police fired teargas and rubber bullets into the air today to disperse a protest over a US-made film depicting the Prophet Mohammad near the US Embassy in the capital Tunis, reporters said.

Around 200 protesters, many of whom with long beards and wearing robes, threw rocks at the police, burned US flags and chanted slogans such as "Obama, Obama, we are here for the triumph of Islam" and "Mohammad is the master of creation".

Police chased the protesters away while Tunisian army soldiers guarded the embassy building. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Western countries denounced today the killing of the US ambassador to Libya and three other embassy staff by armed attackers, while many Muslim states focused their condemnation on the film that provoked the violence.

In Libya and Egypt, where the US embassy was also attacked yesterday, authorities promised to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the other staff were killed in an assault on the US consulate and a safe house in Benghazi by Islamist gunmen. The attackers blamed Washington for a low-budget anti-Islam film produced in the United States, excerpts of which could be viewed on the Internet.

Western leaders expressed unanimous shock at killings that France's president Francois Hollande called an "odious crime".

German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said: "Nothing can justify violence". Italy's prime minister Mario Monti praised the Libyan government for speaking out against the violence.

Russia's foreign ministry said: "We decisively condemn all attacks on foreign diplomatic representations and their employees as manifestations of terrorism that can have no justification."

At the United Nations, under-secretary general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman told the security council at a briefing: "The United Nations rejects defamation of religion in all forms, but there is no justification for violence such as occurred in Benghazi."

Libyan deputy prime minister Mustafa Abu Shagour joined the condemnation of the killings. "I do condemn the cowardly act of attacking the US consulate and the killing of Mr Stevens and the other diplomats," he said in a message on Twitter.

The US military helped Libya's government come to power as part of a Nato bombing campaign that helped topple Muammar Gadafy last year.

In Egypt - where protesters scaled the U.S. embassy's walls and tore down the American flag - the government of new president Mohammed Mursi also condemned the violence but called on Washington to take action against the film's makers.

"What happened at the US embassy in Cairo is regrettable and rejected by all Egyptian people and cannot be justified, especially if we consider that the people who produced this low film have no relation to the (US) government," prime minister Hisham Kandil said, reading out a statement.