London mayor Ken Livingstone has accused the media giving a "platform to racists" in its coverage of Muslim protests against cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad as a terrorist.

Mr Livingstone backed a Muslim protest against religious hatred to be held this Saturday in Trafalgar Square.

"I am supporting this event because, unlike some of the BBC's coverage, it will allow the views of the mainstream Muslim community to be properly heard," he said.

"Too many media outlets have given excessive weight to the fringes of this argument including giving a platform to racists."

Danish embassies in Syria and Lebanon were torched after a Danish newspaper published the cartoons, one of which showed Muhammad with a turban shaped like a bomb.

Newspapers around the world reprinted the caricatures and reported on the ensuing protests by Muslims, including one in London where marchers brandished placards glorifying the July 7 blasts.

"There is no getting away from the fact that this whole episode has allowed much of Europe's media to engage in an orgy of Islamophobia," the mayor said.

"The only beneficiaries will be the racists and Al Qaeda. It should stop now.' Mr Livingstone spoke alongside moderate leaders from organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Association of Britain.

The "United against Incitement and Islamophobia" rally in Trafalgar Square will take place from 1pm to 5pm on Saturday.

The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone spoke at a press conference in City Hall today alongside Muslim leaders and urged that the views of mainstream Islam be heard in the current debate about the publication of the Danish cartoons that have caused offence around the Muslim world.

The press conference was called in support of this Saturday's rally 'United against Incitement and Islamophobia', the aim of which is to explain the views of the mainstream Muslim community in condemning the publication of the Islamophobic cartoons, and to dissociate the mainstream Muslim community from the tiny minority of extremists who have been given media coverage out of all proportion to their numbers.

'Too many media outlets have given excessive weight to the fringes of this argument including giving a platform to racists.

'The publication of these cartoons was a deliberate and gratuitous insult to the Muslim community, designed to destroy trust and understanding. Had such images, bordering on racist, been used to portray other groups they would rightly have been condemned as racist or anti-Semitic.

'There is no excuse for breaking the law and anyone who does so should and will face the prospect of prosecution, but there is no getting away from the fact that this whole episode has allowed much of Europe's media to engage in an orgy of Islamophobia. The only beneficiaries will be the racists and Al Qaeda. It should stop now.'