Fresh protests are under way in Muslim countries against an anti-Islam film made in the US.

Demonstrators have clashed with police in the Pakistani city of Peshawar as anger over insults to the Prophet Mohammad boiled over despite calls from political and religious leaders across the Muslim world for peaceful protest.

An anti-Islam film made in America has enraged Muslims and led to days of protests across the Muslim world, while cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad published in a French magazine on Wednesday were expected to compound the anger.

Egypt's highest Islamic legal official said Muslims should follow his example of enduring insults without retaliating.

In a speech to politicians Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said: "An attack upon the Holy Prophet is an attack on the whole 1.5 billion Muslims. Therefore, this is something unacceptable."

Pakistan has declared Friday a "Day of Love for the Prophet Mohammad". However critics of the unpopular government said it was pandering to Islamist parties.

Protesters took to the streets of the Pakistani city of Peshawar and torched two cinemas and clashed with riot police who tried to disperse them with teargas.

Near the capital, Islamabad, protesters set fire to a motorway toll booth. The previous day, about 1,000 stone-throwing protesters clashed with police as they tried to force their way to the US embassy.

The government shut down mobile phone services in more than a dozen cities as part of security arrangements ahead of protests expected on Friday.

The US embassy in Pakistan has been running television advertisements, one featuring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying the government had nothing to do with the film.

The US and French embassies have been closed in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, which has the world's biggest Muslim population, and diplomatic missions in the Afghan capital, Kabul, were on lock-down.

Police in Kabul said they had been in contact with religious and community leaders to try to prevent violence.

About 10,000 Islamists gathered in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, after Friday prayers to chant anti-US and anti-French slogans. They burned those countries' flags and an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama.