Western embassies across the Muslim world remained on high alert and the United States urged vigilance after days of anti-American violence provoked by a video mocking the Prophet Mohammed.

Hundreds of Pakistanis clashed with police yesterday as they tried to march toward the US Consulate in the southern city of Karachi. Police and private security guards outside the consulate also fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd.

Ali Ahmar, a spokesman for the Shiite Muslim group that organised the rally, said one protester was killed, but this was not confirmed by authorities.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, one person was killed and one wounded when gunmen opened fire at a protest against the film in Hyderabad and in the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, about 300 protestors burned an effigy of US President Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Germany followed the US lead and withdrew some staff from its embassy in Sudan, which was stormed on Friday.

Washington ordered non-essential staff and family members to leave its embassy there on Saturday.

Non-essential US personnel have also been withdrawn from Tunisia, and Washington urged US citizens to leave the capital Tunis after the embassy there was targeted on Friday.

Although protests peaked on Friday, a small group of protesters burned a US flag outside the US embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara yesterday and there were also demonstrations in the Afghan capital Kabul.

The violence is the most serious wave of anti-American protests in the Muslim world since the start of the Arab Spring last year.

It was fanned by public anger over a video, posted on the Internet under several titles including Innocence of Muslims, which mocked the Prophet Mohammad and portrayed him as a fool and a womaniser.

The US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans, were killed in Benghazi, Libya, last Tuesday. At least nine people were killed in protests in several countries on Friday. Some US officials have suggested the Benghazi attack was planned by Islamist militants using the video as a pretext.

The crisis also presents Mr Obama with a foreign policy headache as the campaign for the presidential election in November heats up. US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said he hoped the worst of the violence was over but that US missions must remain on guard against any flare-ups.

"There continue to be some demonstrations but it would appear that there is some levelling off on the violence that we thought might take place," he said. "Having said that, these demonstrations are likely to continue over the next few days if not longer."

Meanwhile, a religious foundation in Iran has increased a reward for killing British author Salman Rushdie to $3.3 million dollars (£2.04 million) from $2.8m in response to the alleged insults to the Prophet.

The 15 Khordad Foundation will pay the prize to whoever acts on the 1989 death fatwa issued by Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against the author of the novel The Satanic Verses, it was reported.