RTM 's management will be summoned to explain the charge that it aired images of the controversial caricatures of Prophet Muhammad during a news programme, said Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today.

Since the issue has now come to the government's attention, he said an extensive investigation will be carried out to determine if the state-owned television and radio station had erred.

"We will investigate, then only we would know. We will summon RTM to know what happened, why it was shown. We will find the source," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Najib said an investigation must be carried out before the government can determine what form of action is to be taken.

The deputy premier said he had discussed the matter with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi this morning.

Abdullah had earlier said that he was waiting for the full information regarding this allegation.

The New Straits Times (NST) and malaysiakini had reported that RTM aired the controversial images during a Mandarin news programme on Feb 3.

The newspaper had also handed over a copy of the footage to the Internal Security Ministry last night.

Suspension orders

The caricature controversy first hit Malaysian shores when foreign news agency AFP photographed the drawings which appeared in a Danish weekly magazine and sent it to its subscribers worldwide, including Malaysia.

The agency also sent an accompanying report titled 'Denmark PM tries to curb Muhammad cartoon damage'.

The caricatures enraged Muslims, and protests erupted around the world. Over here, Sarawak Tribune reproduced the cartoon together with a report titled: 'Cartoon, not much impact here'.

Soon after, Sarawak's oldest newspaper was slapped with an indefinite suspension .

Following this, Chinese newspaper Guangming Daily landed in hot soup for the same offence, and emerged with a relatively minor burn in the form of a two-week suspension.

Just when Malaysians thought the dust had settled, NST published a comic strip on Monday that sent temperatures soaring again.

The Non Sequitur strip featured a street artist sitting on a chair next to a sign which read 'Caricatures of Muhammad While You Wait'.

A boxed caption read 'Kevin finally achieves his goal to be the most feared man in the world'.

However, the prime minister today said that the newspaper will not face any action because it had made an apology on its front-page.