"Local authorities have responded and are on the scene," said spokesman Kurtis Cooper said. He said he had no further information.

A US Embassy statement said the embassy came under armed attack at 10:10 am local time and that all embassy personnel are safe. One Syrian embassy guard was injured by gunfire and is in a stable condition at a local hospital, the statement said.

The Embassy's charge d'affairs, Michael Corbin, met with Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdel Maguid at the scene, and spoke by phone with assistant minister of foreign affairs, Ahmed Arnous, according to the statement.

It said the Syrian government has pledged full security cooperation.

State television said four armed attackers "attempted to storm" the Embassy, using automatic rifles and hand grenades. Syrian security guards attacked the gunmen, killing three and wounding a fourth, TV said.

The attackers came in two cars and parked one that was rigged with explosives in front of the embassy but did not blow it up, state-run TV reported. Explosive experts dismantled the bomb, it said.

But a witness told The Associated Press that two gunmen stopped a car on the street in front of the embassy, got out of the car, shot at the Syrian sentries in front of the building's entrance and then detonated the car.

The witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the security personnel shot back, and security forces in the area rushed to the scene.

Television footage showed a delivery van loaded with pipe bombs strapped to large propane gas canisters outside the Embassy. Had the bombs detonated, the explosions would have caused massive damage.

The footage also showed the charred remains of a smaller car parked several feet behind the van.

A Syrian who works at the American Embassy, contacted by telephone, said there were no U.S. casualties. The employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the incident started just after 10 a.m.

Damascus has been hit by militant attacks in the past. In April 2004, four people were killed in a clash between Syrian police and a team of suspected bombers in the diplomatic quarter of Damascus.

The authorities at that time accused Islamic militants of trying blow up an explosives-laden car near the Canadian embassy.

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