Hillary Clinton pushes for jobs, reform in transitioning Tunisia

The chief US diplomat began talks with interim President Foued Mebazaa, who replaced the ousted Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, after saying that an international donors conference would help to focus minds on Tunisia's needs.

New government officials and other Tunisians understand "we need a plan for economic development, for jobs," Clinton told reporters during a tour of Tunisian Red Crescent offices.

"There's going to be a donors conference that will be held in some months. I'm going to be sending a delegation from the United States," said Clinton who arrived Wednesday in Tunis as the most senior US official to visit since Ben Ali's ouster on January 14.

"So we want to know what Tunisia wants. We don't want to come in and say here's what the United States believes... Then we want to work on plans... a plan for health, we want to help do what we can to have a plan for jobs," she said.

"The revolution created so many hopes and now we have to translate those hopes into results and that comes through economic reform and political reform," Clinton told Tunisian reporters.