"Members Only" Section

I’m looking to build a “Members Only” section within a Flash design and I’m wondering if there’s a secure way to connect to a .htaccess file through PHP.

I’ve got a simple User Management System working right now that runs off a .htaccess file that I’d love to integrate into the Flash environment without having to pop-up the normal htacess interface through a browser.

If there isn’t a way to do it through .htacess, can anyone point me in the direction of a PHP/MySQL solution?

Any help you can provide is appreciated.