Washington, Jun 18 (AFP) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today urged a transition to democracy in Syria, saying in a commentary in the Arabic-language Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the regime crackdown would not quell the momentum for change.

In an English translation provided by the State Department, Clinton wrote under the headline "There Is No Going Back in Syria" that it was "increasingly clear" the crackdown was an irreversible shift in the country's push towards reform.

The Syrian regime's "continued brutality may allow (President Bashar al-Assad) to delay the change that is under way in Syria, it will not reverse it," Clinton wrote in the pan-Arab daily published in London.

"The most important question of all -- what does this mean for Syria's future? -- is increasingly clear: There is no going back."

The top US diplomat rejected Syrian government claims that the protests were largely the work of foreign forces.