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Two Western journalists were among 26 people killed on Wednesday as Syrian forces pounded the rebel city of Homs, activists said, while calls mounted for a truce to allow in humanitarian aid.

The latest barrage came a day after security forces killed at least 68 across the country, adding to an overall toll of 7,636 since anti-regime protests erupted last March, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The toll includes 5,542 civilians, the head of the Britain-based monitoring group, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.

At least 24 civilians were killed in shelling of the Baba Amr district of Homs on Wednesday, the 19th straight day that the city in central Syria was being pounded, the Observatory said.

American journalist Marie Colvin, who reported for London's Sunday Times, and French freelance photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed in the bombing of Baba Amr, French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said the deaths of the journalists showed that "this regime must go."

From inside the quarter, activist Omar Shaker told AFP that two were killed and three others wounded as a shell crashed into a makeshift media centre set up by anti-regime militants.

French newspaper Le Figaro said one of its reporters, Edith Bouvier, was wounded in the legs, and Sunday Times Tycoon owner Rupert Murdoch said the paper's photojournalist Paul Conroy was injured.

The area remained the target of random shelling, blocking attempts to remove the bodies, Shaker said.

French television reporter Gilles Jacquier was killed in Homs last month when a shell exploded amid a group of journalists covering protests in the city on a visit organised by the authorities.

Syrian citizen journalist Rami al-Sayyed, who provided live footage on the Internet from Baba Amr, was killed late Tuesday when a rocket hit a car in which he was travelling, activist Hadi Abdullah told AFP.

A call by the International Committee for the Red Cross for a two-hour truce daily to deliver aid to afflicted areas has gained support from the United Nations, as well as from the United States and Russia.

Tuesday's call came a day after the ICRC said it was in talks with Syrian authorities and rebels to halt the violence.

Meanwhile, Syria's main opposition group demanded the international community create "safe havens" in the country and called on Russia to force the regime to allow access for humanitarian convoys.

At a news conference in Paris, the Syrian National Council said it would attend a summit of the countries known as the "Friends of Syria" and ask for safe zones to protect civilians and allow the opposition to organise.

Syrian authorities, meanwhile, blamed economic sanctions imposed by the West and Arab states, for the deterioration in health care service in the country.

The rebel Free Syrian Army head, Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad, has welcomed the humanitarian truce call but voiced doubts that the "criminal" regime would abide by a ceasefire arrangement.

And the UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Valerie Amos, called on Syria to allow aid groups unimpeded access to the country.

"This is a major human rights crisis that is now moving into significant humanitarian consequences," Amos said.

In Washington, White House press secretary Jay Carney said "we support calls for ceasefires to allow for the provision of humanitarian supplies to Syrians who desperately need it."

"Reprehensible actions taken by the Assad regime have led us to a situation where basic supplies, humanitarian supplies are very scarce."

Moscow, a staunch ally of Syrian, on Wednesday also supported the ICRC call for a truce, expressing "serious concern" about the humanitarian situation, foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

But Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Russia was not backing a call by France to set up actual humanitarian corridors because these would require support from foreign troops.

Meanwhile, Saudi King Abdullah told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev it was "futile" to have dialogue on Syria, saying Moscow should have "coordinated with the Arabs... before using the veto" to block a resolution on Syria in the UN Security Council.

"But now, dialogue about what is happening in Syria is futile," he told Medvedev in a telephone discussion.

The conversation came two days ahead of an international conference in Tunisia to be attended by the Syrian opposition and not the regime, to find ways to end the bloodshed.

Russia announced that it would not attend the "Friends of Syria" meeting because it was being convened "for the purpose of supporting one side against another in an internal conflict," the foreign ministry said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will participate, said Syria was increasingly under pressure.

The Friday meeting will "demonstrate that Assad's regime is increasingly isolated and that the brave Syrian people need our support and solidarity," she said.

AFP