embedding php

Can the php4 engine be embedded in another application like python or perl? I am currently writing an application where it's desirable to mix perl or python with php so I'm writing an interface layer in C to allow perl/python variables and function calls to communicate with php variables and functions. If the php4 engine is embeddable it would make things easier since I could just link the two engines in the same application and write an interface to translate between the two rather than embedding perl/python in my application and building into the php source code. Any ideas? Suggestions?? Thanks, Paul