Quran-burning plan draws worldwide condemnation

There have been frequent protests in the past over similar incidents. In 2006, about a dozen people were killed in violent protests in Kabul after a Danish newspaper published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad and a similar number died in another protest a year earlier.

Last January, Afghan troops shot and killed eight protesters and wounded 13 in southern Helmand province during a riot triggered by the reported desecration of a Quran.

Two of the top U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have said the Florida church's plan risked undermining U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts to reach out to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.

The White House and the State Department have also issued stern warnings, making it clear Obama's administration deplored the plan.

General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the plan could trigger retaliation against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Petraeus said in a statement this week.

Petraeus commands almost 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, where violence is at its worst since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.

The Taliban government was ousted soon after the Sept. 11 attacks for harboring al-Qaida leaders including Osama bin Laden.

On Wednesday, the Vatican added to world condemnation of the planned Quran burning.

"These deplorable acts of violence, in fact, cannot be counteracted by an outrageous and grave gesture against a book considered sacred by a religious community," the Vatican said in a statement.

"Each religion, with its respective sacred books, places of worship and symbols, has the right to respect and protection."

Germany's leading Jewish group joined the chorus of condemnation, saying it evoked the mass killing of Jews in the Holocaust that followed Nazi book burnings.

"The idea is terrible and repulsive," said Charlotte Knobloch, president of Germany's Central Council of Jews.

In Pakistan, actress Angelina Jolie said she "hardly had the words" to express her opposition.

The Oscar-winning actress was in Pakistan to highlight the plight of millions of people devastated by Pakistan's worst-ever floods.

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