EU ministers call for alliance with Muslim countries to fight terrorism

EU foreign ministers called yesterday for an alliance with Muslim countries to fight the growing Islamist militant threat as anger over the Charlie Hebdo cartoons fed fresh protests and violence.

Foreign policy head Federica Mogherini met Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi to urge better cooperation in the wake of last week's deadly Paris attacks and anti-terrorism raids in Belgium.

On the other side of a widening divide, anger still raged in the Muslim world at the publication of a new Prophet Mohammed cartoon on the front of Charlie Hebdo's comeback issue last week.

Russia's interior ministry claimed 800,000 people had flooded into Grozny, the capital of the Muslim province of Chechnya to demonstrate.

In Niger, 45 churches were torched over the weekend and five people killed in protests against the cartoons.

In Brussels, where Belgian troops guarded the EU headquarters and other sensitive buildings, ministers were discussing how to prevent battle-hardened jihadis returning home from the Syria and Iraq. "Terrorism and terrorist attacks are targeting most of all Muslims in the world so we need an alliance," Mogherini said.