LAHORE, PAKISTAN (AFP) - US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton struck an assertive tone in Pakistan on Thursday, hitting out at its government over Al-Qaeda and calling for better management of the economy.

Mrs Clinton has spent the last two days in Pakistan, the troubled US ally on the frontline of the war on Al-Qaeda and its allies, trying to bolster the civilian government and counter rising anti-US sentiment in the Muslim nation.

But after pressing her message - the US desire to turn a new page in its relations with Pakistan after mistakes of the past - she appeared to get annoyed during talks with senior editors and business leaders.

The most senior US official to visit since President Barack Obama put the nuclear-armed state at the heart of the war on Al-Qaeda, Mrs Clinton took issue with Islamabad's position that the Al-Qaeda leadership is not in Pakistan.

'Al-Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002,' Mrs Clinton told senior Pakistani newspaper editors in the country's cultural capital, Lahore.

'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,' she said, adding, 'Maybe that's the case; maybe they're not gettable. I don't know... As far as we know, they are in Pakistan'.