While continuing to call for reforms that will stimulate growth and inspire investor confidence, she also carried a message of hope, telling Asian nations they have the power to rebound from a year-long economic tailspin.

Albright, in remarks to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations annual conference, also urged the region's leaders not to abandon efforts to combat ``transnational threats'' like global warming, drug trafficking and deforestation.

She renewed her promise that the United States will do all it can to help countries hardest-hit by the economic downturn.

Until the financial crisis struck the region last year, Asian nations had made remarkable achievements over the past three decades, ``lifting more people out of poverty more rapidly than any comparable group of nations in history,''Albright said. ``The economic crisis has eroded these gains but it has not erased them. Not by a long shot... The United States has great confidence that in time the nations of this region will return to growth,'' she said. But, she added, ``we should have no illusions that recovery is around the corner.''

She advised that ``if we are going to return this region to growth, we do have to remember how it achieved growth in the first place. The region's success was built on the initiative of its people, but it was also made possible by an open global trading system and fuelled by foreign investment.''

Albright outlined specific steps that should be taken to restore confidence and stability to the region's economies.

The United States, while urging Asian nations to reform, is committed to ``do all we can'' to help countries hurt by the crisis, including support for International Monetary Fund and World Bank lending, she said.

Washington also strongly backs IMF and World Bank efforts to strengthen thesocial safety net of countries most hurt by the crisis and on its own has provided humanitarian assistance to Indonesia, she said.

Albright said the United States would work with other nations in the region to encourage renewed direct investment in their economies, but the countries must act to inspire investor confidence. This means foreign investors must be treated like domestic investors, financial transfers must be unfettered and there must be access to international arbitration.

Most importantly, there must be transparency, meaning governments must keep their books open so investors have the information to make responsible decisions and corruption does not flourish, she said. She reiterated US expectations that Japan will act to stimulate domestic demand, restructure its banking sector and deregulate the economy.

But she said there is a real danger that consumed with the financial crisis, countries will be diverted from broader challenges like maintaining forests and combating crime and drugtrafficking.

Economic desperation may force more women and children into exploitation, make economies in drug producing nations more dependent on narcotics exports and cause more forests to be felled to produce timber and palm oil for export, she said.