VATICAN CITY (Reuters) — As Pope Benedict tries to put the furore caused by his comments on Islam behind him, critics and sympathisers alike are asking why he made them at all and whether advisers should have foreseen the storm.The Pope has said he was deeply sorry Muslims had been offended by his use of a medieval quotation on Islam and violence, but his words have failed to quell the fury of some Islamic groups demanding a fuller, unequivocal apology.

"I think the problem is he may have still been thinking like a German academic and perhaps forgot that there were people outside the room who were listening," said Father Tom Reese of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

"He needs someone to give him more political advice," Reese, a leading Church historian who lost his job as editor of the liberal Jesuit weekly America because it displeased the Vatican, said by telephone from Washington.

Italian Church officials, shocked by footage of the Pope burned in effigy in Iraq and elsewhere, have rushed to his defence. Some complain his words were deliberately taken out of context, others accuse media of simplifying and distorting.

In a highly complex and academically rich lecture at Germany's Regensburg University a week ago, the Pope referred to criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus.

The emperor said everything the Prophet Mohammad brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

The Pope, a former theology professor, later stressed that the quotation did not represent his personal views but its use at all was seen by many Muslims as deeply offensive and Catholic experts warned of a major setback in relations with Islam.

Bernardo Valli, a leading Italian commentator, said the Pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzigner, had simply slipped and mixed up his roles.

"He simply forgot that words on the lips of a pontiff carry weight well beyond those on the lips of a professor ... Professor Ratzinger did not realise that the judgment of Manuel II Palaeologus, right or wrong, could become explosive if evoked by the man who incarnates Christianity," Valli wrote.

Analysts attempting to explain the episode have noted that the trip to Germany coincided with changeovers of both the Vatican secretary of state and foreign minister and this may have led to a lowering of the department's political antennae.

"He is very bright but he does not have that political instinct. I blame his advisers. Someone should have said 'wait a minute, don't do this'," Reese said.

Some have also mentioned the "Fitzgerald factor".

Last February, Benedict effectively beheaded the Vatican department for dialogue with Islam by removing its president and merging the department with the Vatican's culture ministry.

Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, a Briton who is one of the Church's most experienced hands at dialogue with Muslims, was sent to Cairo in what was widely seen as a demotion.

Critics called the Pope's removal of Fitzgerald "an exiling" and expressed concerns that the Vatican no longer had a top in-house expert on Islam to advise him on Muslim affairs.

"He was the smartest guy in the Vatican on relations with Muslims. You don't exile someone like that, you listen to them," Reese told the BBC last April, shortly after Fitzgerald was moved.

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe of Naples on Tuesday said the Pope's words had been the subject of "malicious interpretation".

A front-page editorial in Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference, pointed an accusing finger at the media, complaining of "incredible oversimplifications and news distortions".