"We sincerely apologize for any offense that this may have caused," Patrick Seybold, director of communications for Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said.

Sony's LittleBigPlanet game, scheduled to hit the markets next Friday, features a mixture of a song with two verses of the Noble Qur'an.

The game Sony's most significant PS3 game till date.

In LittleBigPlanet, players control small characters nicknamed Sackboy, owing to their material and appearance, each of which can run and jump, as well as hang onto and drag objects.

Players use these abilities in a number of ways: to play and explore the environments that come with the game, which feature platforming elements such as jumping, pushing, grabbing and running.

To their own content, players place stickers into levels, as well as using the level editor to create, destroy, edit and manipulate levels and finally to share creations.

Offense

The new game has drawn fire from Muslims as offensive.

"We consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Qur'an deeply offending," a game player said on an Internet messageboard.

"We hope you would remove that track from the game immediately."

This is not the first time to withdraw a game from the markets for offending Muslims.

Japanese Nintendo has altered post-release shipments of "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" after discovering the game featured Islamic chanting.

Last month, a computer game featuring an American hero sent to "wipe out the Muslim race" has sparked outrage among in Britain.

British Muslims were furious over a corporate war game in which men in camouflaged military gear battle an enemy distinguishable only by shemaghs, a traditional men headdress in several Arab countries.