France urges inquiry into journalist's death in Syria.

Reuters - France called on Friday for an independent investigation into the death of a French television journalist killed in a mortar attack in Homs this week while reporting on unrest in the central Syrian city.

Gilles Jacquier, a journalist for France 2 television, was among nine people killed on Wednesday in Homs in what the Syrian state news agency SANA said was a mortar attack by "terrorists".

Jacquier, the first Western reporter killed in Syria in 10 months of protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, was in a government-escorted media group visiting a pro-Assad neighbourhood of the divided city, which has been racked by protests, crackdowns and sectarian violence.

"We want an independent and transparent inquiry into the circumstances of this drama," Foreign Ministry deputy spokesperson Romain Nadal told a news conference.

France has led Western efforts to try to force Assad to end a crackdown on protests and has suggested a need to set up zones to protect civilians - the first proposal by a major Western power for outside intervention on the ground.

The death of Jacquier is likely to raise the tension between Paris and Damascus. Asked if he believed the Syrian government could be part of an independent investigation, Nadal said France wanted "guarantees" the inquiry would be independent.

He would not give more details and said Syrian authorities had not contacted Paris about the incident. Paris prosecutors earlier said they were opening their own investigation in to the death and an autopsy would be performed on the journalist's body after it arrived in Paris on Friday.

France Televisions, the state-owned news broadcaster which controls France 2, said the journalists had been travelling in an convoy with a military escort.

"When the firing started, the Syrian soldiers withdrew leaving the journalists alone and exposed. Why? I don't have the answer. But the newsroom, France Televisions, and the families want the answer," France Televisions editorial director Thierry Thuillier said in an interview on the broadcaster's website.

Syria barred most foreign media from the country after demonstrations against Assad's rule began in March. However, the government has allowed more journalists in since the Arab League sent a monitoring mission last month to check if authorities were complying with an Arab plan to halt the bloodshed.