WASHINGTON, Feb 6: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Arab leaders on Sunday that the wind of change flowing across their region was irreversible.

Noting that the wave of unrest that started in Tunisia last month, quickly spread to Egypt, Yemen and Jordan, she warned: “Forces that are at work, particularly because of the advances in communications technology, are not reversible.”

She also noted that while some Arab leaders “listen better than others, all leaders have to recognise now that the failure to reform, the failure to open up their economies and political systems, is just not an option any longer”. The United States, she said, wanted to “play a constructive role in helping countries move in the direction of more openness and more democracy and participation and market access, the things that we stand for

She said that the transition to democracy in Egypt should be as inclusive and transparent as possible.

In an interview with US National Public Radio, Secretary Clinton said the Muslim Brotherhood's decision to engage with the government suggested it was now involved in the type of dialogue that Washington had encouraged.

“We are going to wait and see how this (the talks) develops,” she added. The United States, she said, wanted the talks in Egypt to lead to an “orderly transition” of power from the Mubarak regime, to free and fair elections and to a more representative government. “That is what the people of Egypt also want,” she added.

The Washington Post noted that her comments “suggest the administration would be willing to work with a government that includes the Brotherhood, but only if certain conditions were met”.

In earlier comments, Obama administration officials have indicated that they would accept the Brotherhood's participation in the Egyptian political process if it agreed to shun violence and to full Egypt's commitments to Israel.

The Brotherhood has been outlawed since 1954 and the talks were the first known discussions between the government and the Brotherhood in years. Secretary Clinton also acknowledged that over the years the US had had close relations with autocratic regimes that were not popular with their people and ran counter to American ideas and ideals.

“There is no easy answer to how we pursue what's in America's interests because ultimately my job, the president's job is to protect the security, the interests of the United States,” she said.

“Do we do business with, do we have relations with, do we support governments over the past 50 years that we do not always see eye to eye with? Of course. That's the world in which we live, but our messages are consistent,” she said.