Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton debated with tribal representatives and women journalists, urging Pakistanis to support their government’s U.S.-backed war against Taliban militants and al-Qaeda allies in the country.

Sitting in a brick courtyard covered with red tribal carpets and decorated with U.S. and Pakistan flags, Clinton told ethnic Pashtun elders the U.S. wants to “leave the past behind” and work with peace builders, part of a pitch to counter rising anti-American sentiment amid escalating insurgencies in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan.

Later at a forum moderated by women television anchors, Clinton sought to deflect criticism over what Pakistan’s government says have been 528 civilian deaths in missile strikes by U.S.-operated unmanned drone aircraft. “I won’t comment on that specific matter,” she said, adding that “winning this war is in Pakistan’s national security interests, and we’re going to do all we can to help them.”

Clinton told the women that al-Qaeda “is in league with the people who are attacking Pakistan,” a reference to Taliban guerrillas whose suicide bombings and commando raids have killed at least 280 people in the country this month. That comment was her second in two days urging Pakistan to find and fight al- Qaeda on its territory, something that would deal a “very severe blow to terrorists everywhere.”

Uphill Battle

Yesterday, Clinton told Pakistani editors in the eastern city of Lahore that “al-Qaeda has had safe haven” in Pakistan since 2002. “I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to.”

At a meeting with radio journalists today, she was less blunt, saying she believed Pakistan’s government was committed to pursuing al-Qaeda. “It’s a question of priorities. They’re going after their most direct enemy right now, the Pakistan Taliban,” she said.

Pakistan’s army has launched its largest offensive yet against Taliban who control parts of the rugged, autonomous tribal zone along the Afghan border. The U.S. says many Taliban groups collaborate with al-Qaeda to attack international forces in Afghanistan. The campaign is concentrated in South Waziristan, the base of the Taliban faction Pakistan blames for 80 percent of terrorist attacks in the country.

Clinton’s three-day public diplomacy mission, to demonstrate America’s long-term commitment to Pakistani democracy and development, has proved an uphill battle.

“Our Blood Spilled”

How many people know that we have spent $300 million already to help Pakistanis uprooted by their army’s anti-Taliban offensives, she asked at the women’s forum today. “We feel like we’re doing things and we are not getting through,” she said.

As she expressed solidarity with Pakistan over hundreds of lives lost in the wave of bombings, she has faced repeated questions over American aims in the region.

One tribal leader told Clinton today that Pakistan had been “fighting your war” in the past and is doing so again today. “The blood spilled” is ours, Mufti Kifayatullah, a member of the local assembly in the North West Frontier Province said, speaking in Pashto.

Negotiations with militants should begin in Afghanistan and then be extended to Pakistan’s tribal regions, the leader said.

“I certainly hope there will be an opportunity for negotiations,” Clinton said, so that “violence will end.” Sitting in a circle of chairs at Islamabad’s National Council of the Arts, she said that after the Sept. 11 attacks eight years ago the U.S. made it clear it “would go away” if the perpetrators were handed over.

Losing Territory

Clinton has stood her ground against Pakistanis’ anger over perceived conditions imposed in a $7.5 billion U.S. economic aid package, while criticizing some in the opposition and media for fanning the furor over the bill signed by President Barack Obama this month.

An August survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center showed 64 percent of Pakistanis regard the U.S. as an enemy. A poll released July 1 by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland shows 90 percent of Pakistanis think the U.S. abuses its power, the highest among the 22 countries surveyed.

Saying she was “more than willing” to listen to Pakistani complaints and “change where we can,” Clinton said Pakistan also has to be mindful of concerns of the U.S. and other nations that have suffered attacks by groups that have found refuge in Pakistan.

“I don’t believe in dancing around difficult issues,” Clinton told the Pakistani journalists in Lahore.

Market Bomb

Saying the Pakistanis “lost control of much of the territory in recent years,” enabling al-Qaeda to take refuge in South Waziristan, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson told reporters traveling with Clinton that authorities appear to be making a real effort now “to reclaim their own territory.”

Hours after Clinton arrived in Islamabad on Oct. 27, a car bomb shattered a crowded market in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 117 people, many of them women and children, in the deadliest attack since October 2007. Sixty others are still missing.

Late yesterday in Islamabad, she met for three hours with Pakistan’s most powerful national security policy makers, Army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Lieutenant General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, who heads Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, and was briefed on the army offensive.

Going into South Waziristan “sent a very good message because that was a center of a lot of terrorist operations and planning,” Clinton said. However, a militant network informed, trained, equipped and funded by al-Qaeda will likely be able to strike again despite its losses, she added.

To contact the reporter on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Lahore at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 30, 2009 07:56 EDT