CAIRO: Queen Sonja of Norway called for cultural dialogue on Thursday during a visit to Egypt. The West and the Middle East must get to know each other, said the queen, who visited the Mohammed Ali mosque in Cairo as well as a Coptic Christian museum and church.

The message would be that we have to know each other… Keeping contact and cultural exchanges, I think, are very important, she said.

Getting to know each other s kind of life and culture is the most important.

The queen, who is on a four-day visit to Egypt, is to attend on Friday with first lady Suzanne Mubarak a showing at the pyramids of Peer Gynt by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, as part of 100-year commemorations of Ibsen s death.

The Norwegian media was among the first to publish controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed last year. The publication by Denmark s largest daily, Jyllands-Posten, in September 2005 of 12 cartoons depicting Mohammed sparked angry demonstrations and violence in parts of the Muslim world, as well as a boycott of Scandinavian products.

Newspapers in Norway, Europe and a handful of Arab outlets also published the caricatures, which are considered blasphemous in Islam.