Hillary Clinton's Wall St speeches published by Wikileaks

Wikileaks has published transcripts of private speeches made by Hillary Clinton

Transcripts of private speeches by US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have been released by the whistle-blowing site Wikileaks.

In one of the extracts, Mrs Clinton told bankers that they were best-placed to help reform the US financial sector.

She also said she favoured "open trade and open borders". Mrs Clinton's main opponent, Donald Trump, has said he wants to renegotiate key trade deals.

Mrs Clinton had refused to publish the transcripts, from 2013 and 2014.

Her rival in the Democratic primaries, Bernie Sanders, had repeatedly called on her to release the text of her speeches, which are thought to have earned her about $26m (£21m).

Analysis - Anthony Zurcher, BBC News

In some alternate universe, the Clinton Wikileaks story would be dominating the news this weekend, as pundits and analysts speculate on whether the revelations could tilt the election to Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush or even Ted Cruz.

Instead, this is Donald Trump's world, and we're all just along for the ride.

That doesn't mean the contents of the purloined messages, assuming they are in fact legitimate and undoctored, won't do lasting damage to Mrs Clinton - if not on Election Day, then as she tries to govern a sharply divided nation in the months and years ahead.

They provide yet more evidence that Mrs Clinton is pro-open-trade and sympathetic to Wall Street interests, despite her protestations otherwise. They also reveal a decidedly middle-of-the-road, pragmatic political attitude that won't sit well with the populist wing of her own party.

After the dust has settled in this election, the divisions within the Democratic ranks will likely re-emerge - and these emails and speech excerpts will be Exhibit A through Z for those on the left who doubt Mrs Clinton's liberal bona fides.

Her every attempt to reach across the aisle to Republicans will be viewed with the highest of suspicions.

The excerpts include comments made at an event sponsored by Goldman Sachs in October 2013 in which Mrs Clinton spoke of the need to consult Wall Street over financial reform.

"The people that know the industry better than anybody are the people who work in the industry," Mrs Clinton said.

At another speech presented to a Brazilian bank in 2013, she spoke of her "dream" for a common trade market.

"My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere," Mrs Clinton said.

The leak comes after the US accused Russia of a cyber attack against political organisations intended to influence the presidential election.

• US accuses Russia of cyber attacks

• Clinton and other Democratic groups 'hacked'

Supporters of Donald Trump had been hopeful that Wikileaks would release an "October Surprise" this week to put an end to Mrs Clinton's presidential hopes.

Campaign staff are believed to have been sent Mrs Clinton's speeches to identify passages that could be potentially problematic if they became public, AP news agency reports.

Wikileaks posted thousands of emails, including exchanges with her campaign aide John Podesta. The release covers messages dating back years but also features some from as recently as last month.

Mr Podesta referred to the disclosures as a Russian hack, suggesting some of the documents may have been altered.

"I'm not happy about being hacked by the Russians in their quest to throw the election to Donald Trump," Mr Podesta wrote. "Don't have time to figure out which docs are real and which are faked."