DAMASCUS (AFP) - A suicide bomber killed at least four people and wounded 17 in central Damascus on Tuesday, Syrian state television reported.

"Four dead, 17 injured in a suicide bombing in the Jebbeh district of Jisr al-Abyad," state television said in a breaking news alert.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said the target of the attack appeared to be a government building.

An Agence France-Presse photographer at the scene said the bomber had blown himself up at the entrance of an administrative building belonging to the army.

The offices are responsible for facilitating aid to families of soldiers killed in combat.

State television network Al-Ikhbariya showed pictures of the scene, the ground littered with rubble and broken glass. At least one body was visible at the front of the building.

Suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted the capital in the bloody 33-month conflict pitting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad against rebels seeking his ouster.

An estimated 126,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which began in the form of peaceful pro-democracy protests in March 2011 but escalated into a civil war following a brutal crackdown by Assad's forces.