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(CNSNews.com) -- Protests were planned across Pakistan Friday as Muslim anger over the alleged desecration of the Koran by the U.S. military spread outwards from Afghanistan, where at least seven people have been killed in violent clashes with security forces.

The Pentagon said Thursday there is no evidence to support an allegation that a copy of the Islamic text had been flushed down a toilet "in an attempt to rattle suspects" held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba. The brief item, citing an unnamed source, was published in Newsweek magazine.

General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a briefing that a search of interrogation logs at Guantanamo had turned up no record of interrogators abusing the Koran.

There was one record - still to be confirmed - of a guard reporting that one of the detainees had been "ripping pages out of the Korean and putting them in the toilet to stop it up, as a protest," he said.

The military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay holds hundreds of foreign suspects captured in the war against Islamist terror, most of them from the Middle East and South Asia.

The detainees are permitted to keep copies of the Koran as well as prayer beads, and the get culturally appropriate meals, time to worship and daily calls to prayer, the State Department said Wednesday.

The governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia both issued protests this week.

The Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement it was following the reports "with great concern and apprehension." If the allegation proved true, the U.S. should hold those responsible to account and "deter any repetition of such actions which are offensive to the Muslim community worldwide."

In Pakistan, lawmakers have debated the issue, with demands for U.S. apologies and calls for a special meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The State Department confirmed that Pakistan had raised "serious concern" with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.

Amid the growing rumblings in the Muslim world, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appearing before a Senate committee Thursday, issued a statement declaring that "disrespect for the holy Koran is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be, tolerated by the United States."

"We honor the sacred books of all the world's great religions," she said. "Disrespect for the holy Koran is abhorrent to us all."

Rice also said she was asking "our friends around the world reject incitement to violence by those who would mischaracterize our intentions."

Calls for worldwide protests

Dozens of people were hurt in the clashes in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, where protestors damaged vehicles and buildings, including the governor's house, the Pakistani consulate, and offices of humanitarian agencies, prompting an evacuation of aid workers.

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