-AP Photo

DAMASCUS: The French, British and Polish embassies in Damascus were scrambling on Friday to try to evacuate two Western journalists wounded in Syria and the bodies of two others, a Western diplomat told AFP.

“The embassies of France, Britain and Poland are working closely together to evacuate the wounded and the bodies of the two journalists who were killed”in the flashpoint central city of Homs, the diplomat said.

Veteran US journalist Marie Colvin, working for Britain's The Sunday Times, and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, with the IP3 Press agency, were killed on Wednesday when a rocket hit a makeshift media centre in the Baba Amr rebel district of Homs.

Edith Bouvier, a reporter for French daily Le Figaro and Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy were wounded. Both have leg injuries.

The Polish embassy, which has represented US interests in Syria since Washington closed its Damascus embassy for security reasons, is involved in measures to evacuate Colvin's body, the diplomat said.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe “solemnly” urged Syria to allow for the evacuation of the wounded journalists, as he arrived in Tunis on Friday for an international meeting on Syria.

Earlier, the French embassy said that Ambassador Eric Chevallier had returned to his post, more than two weeks after being recalled by Paris in response to the Syrian regime's crackdown on dissent.

An embassy spokesman told AFP that Chevallier returned to Damascus on Thursday night but declined to say if his return was related to efforts to evacuate the wounded journalists and the bodies of those killed.

“We do not comment on this issue,” he said.

Meanwhile the International Committee of the Red Cross said it hopes for a “positive response,” mainly from the authorities, to evacuate the foreign reporters from Homs, and to deliver aid.

“The negotiations have reached a very critical level and we are hoping for a positive answer,” Saleh Dabbakeh, the ICRC's spokesman in Damascus, told AFP.

On Thursday Bouvier and William Daniels -- a journalist who was on assignment for Le Figaro and Time magazine, pleaded in a video message for medical evacuation.

Bouvier, a reporter for the French daily Le Figaro, appeared calm and coherent, even occasionally smiling weakly as she addressed the camera, in a video shot by anti-regime activists in the beleaguered Baba Amr suburb.

“My leg is broken at the level of the femur, along its length and also horizontally. I need to be operated upon as soon as possible,” she said.

“The doctors here have treated me very well, as much as they are able, but they are not able to undertake surgical procedures,” she said.

“I need a ceasefire and a medically equipped vehicle, or at least one in good condition, that can get me to the Lebanese border so I can be treated in the shortest possible time,” she said, lying on a sofa under a blanket.

Daniels said he had not himself been wounded in Wednesday's attack, but warned that the situation was getting harder, with no power and little food getting through because of the siege. Shelling could be heard in the background.

“Our morale is good, she's strong, she's smiling,” Daniels said of Bouvier.

“I hope the French authorities can help us as quickly as possible because it's difficult here. We have no electricity. We don't have much to eat, bombs are still falling. We need to get out by medical evacuation.”A second video showed Conroy also urging help.

The British Foreign Office said on Thursday he was “on his way out” of Homs.

“We understand that Paul Conroy is on his way out of Homs to a neighbouring country where he will be receiving medical treatment,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman told AFP.

Western powers condemned Syria over the killing of the journalists.

But Damascus said it was not responsible for the deaths of the journalists who had “sneaked” into the country, according to a foreign ministry statement.

On Thursday Information Minister Adnan Mahmud told AFP that “the governor of Homs has been told to exert every effort to evacuate the journalists.”