MUSLIM RADICALISTS WILL NOT ENJOY THIS ONE.

The French weekly satirical paper Charlie Hebdo has hit the newstands portraying Mohammad the prophet naked in cartoons.

It cannot fail to provoke muslims around the world who are still rioting through the middle east over a video depicting Mohammad as a lecherous fool.

The drawings in Charlie Hebdo risk exascerbating a crisis that has seen the storming of US and other western embassies, which included the killing of the US ambassador to Libya and a deadly suicidal bombing in Afghanistan.

Riot police have been deployed to protect the magazine's office.

The magazine shows caricatures of the prophet naked in what the publishers say was an effort to poke fun at the furor.

Catholic bishop Dubost and Mohammad Moussaoui President of the French Muslim Council have defended the right to publish under the French Right of Freedom : Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius doesn't quite see it that way and said " The publication of the cartoons are a provocation.

Stephane Charbonnier Charlie Hebdo's editor rejects the foreign minister's criticism.

The cartoons have prompted French authorities to shut schools and embassies in 20 countries.

It may well be too late to cause even more trouble.