Two Western journalists were killed on Wednesday in shelling by Syrian regime forces of the flashpoint city of Homs, an activist said.

The two were killed when a shell crashed into a makeshift media centre set up by anti-regime activists in Baba Amr district, under siege since February 4, activist Omar Shaker told AFP from the area.

He said three other foreign journalists were wounded.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the two journalists killed were an American woman and a French man.

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