Pakistan summoned the British ambassador and told him giving a knighthood to Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses outraged many Muslims, was insensitive and there were protests around the country.

Mr Rushdie, whose book prompted the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa against him for blaspheming against Islam, was awarded a knighthood for services to literature in Queen Elizabeth's birthday honours list.

Pakistanis protested in several cities yesterday chanting Death to Rushdie and burning effigies of the British author, born in Bombay to Muslim parents in 1947 and educated at an exclusive British school and Cambridge University.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Tasnim Aslam said British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley had been called in.

"He was told that Salman Rushdie has been a controversial figure who is known less for his literary contribution and more for his offensive and insulting writing which deeply hurts the sentiments of Muslims all over the world," she said.

"Conferment of a knighthood on Salman Rushdie shows an utter lack of sensitivity on the part of the British government."

The Pakistani parliament passed a resolution on Monday deploring the knighthood, and the religious affairs minister said the honour could be used to justify suicide bombings. He later said he did not mean such attacks would be justified but the comment caused a storm of protest.

Britain said it was concerned about the minister's comments and nothing could justify suicide blasts. "The High Commissioner made clear the British government's deep concern at what the minister for religious affairs was reported to have said," a British Foreign Office spokesman said.

A US State Department spokesman said he did not know if the minister was accurately quoted but "it's safe to assume we don't share the view."

Mr Rushdie's book prompted protests, some violent, by Muslims in many countries after it was published in 1988. Muslims say the novel blasphemed against the Prophet Mohammad and ridiculed the Koran and events in early Muslim history.