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Danish immigrants who won't shake hands should not be granted citizenship, a senior member of the country's parliament has said.

The speaker of the Danish parliament, Pia Kjaersgaard, wrote in a blog post on Monday for Danish broadcaster TV2 that: "If you want to be Danish, of course you should be willing to shake hands."

The move has been seen as targeting Muslim applicants, as some don't shake hands for religious reasons.

Until she was made speaker in 2015, Mrs Kjaersgaard was a leading figure in the Danish People's Party, a right wing group with generally anti-EU and anti-immigration views.

And, while the she has taken up a role that is supposed to be politically neutral, the party she is still a member of could end up holding the reigns of power at the next Danish general election.

Her statement comes after the Danish parliament tightened the criteria for obtaining a citizenship in June.

Part of the new criteria is that prospective citizens must participate in a ceremony with the mayor of the municipality they will live in, where handshakes are a central part.

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The new rules also state that applicants must sign a document committing to respecting basic Danish values and act "respectfully towards representatives of the authorities".

This, according to the Danish People's Party, means that applicants must shake hands with the mayor as is custom when accepting their citizenship.

Requiring people to shake hands before they can become citizens is not yet People's Party policy and it is not known if it will be in the event Ms Kjaersgaard's colleagues win power.

The latest opinion poll from Danish state broadcaster DR found that the People's Party would be the second biggest party - and the biggest on the right - if a general election was held the next day.

Martin Henriksen, spokesperson on foreign affairs for the Danish People's Party, told Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet that the party wanted specific legislation on handshakes but had compromised on the current wording.

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Mrs Kjaersgaard dismissed concerns about the interpretation of the law, saying that no legal investigation or "absurd speculations" on whether Muslims should be allowed to wear gloves to shake peoples' hands was necessary.

Denmark is not the only European country dealing with the cultural rift caused by handshakes.

In Lausanne, Switzerland, a Muslim couple was denied citizenship because they refused to shake hands with the opposite sex when being interviewed for citizenship by local authorities.

In Sweden, a woman was awarded 40,000 SEK (£3,400) in compensation by the Swedish Labour Court after a job interview was cut short when she refused to shake hands with her male employer.

In 2015, the Danish Equality Board awarded a taxi driver a 10,000 DKK (£1,200) compensation after he was fired because he refused to shake his female employer's hand.