Hewlett Packard (HP) has joined a Microsoft and IBM-led online listings initiative which HP's chief executive last week accused of being closed.

At her keynote speech during last week's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, HP chief executive Carly Fiorina questioned the openness of the group that is developing the Universal Description Discover and Integration (UDDI) framework. She also asked whether it is "a cartel designed to drive things towards the advantages of certain vendors?".

But yesterday, HP issued a statement confirming that it has joined the movement, which is also backed by 30 other vendors. Bill Russell, vice-president and general manager of HP's software and solutions organisation, said: "Our decision to join is further proof of HP's leadership in adopting open standards.

"A new generation of software is being developed to facilitate the emerging services-based computing model. As the industry builds out this new infrastructure, it's critically important that these emerging technologies include UDDI."

As part of agreement, HP will contribute its eSpeak middleware to the initiative, among other technologies. HP had previously considered UDDI as a potentially rival to eSpeak, but an HP spokesman said the initiative's framework would now contain aspects of eSpeak.

The spokesman also added that although HP had declined to join the project when it was originally invited to last month, the company's latest decision does not constitute a change of heart from Fiorina's comments. Instead HP decided that the initiative would be more open if HP also participated, said the spokesman.

"It is important that HP has a part in this and [for it] to contribute eSpeak. We are a tier-one member, which means we have an equal say as the founding members," he added.

The UDDI initiative was launched early last month by IBM, Microsoft and ebusiness software vendor Ariba. Its aim is to develop a framework for listing the basic contact information for ebusinesses by industry, similar to a Yellow Pages listing.

The specifications are being defined now, and according to the HP spokesman, eSpeak will be closely linked to the framework by the end of the year.