WASHINGTON: It was supposed to be a charm offensive, but as the day wore on she put away her charm and went on the offensive.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton`s public dressing down of Pakistan during a three-day visit there, including virtually accusing the country of complicity with al-Qaida, has shaken Washington as much as it stunned her hosts.

Her inner voice became her outer voice, Martha Raddatz, a veteran NBC correspondent said on the network. Officials in Washington were trying to keep a straight face, but there were a few gasps, she added.

Clinton`s blunt remarks came during a pow-wow with half-dozen combative senior Pakistani journalists who harried her about US policy in the region. Al-Qaida has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002 , she finally asserted when challenged about Washington`s tough prescriptions for Islamabad. 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 .

After having publicly doubted the bona fides of her hosts, she added, as an afterthought: Maybe that`s the case maybe they`re not gettable... I don`t know. As far as we know, they are in Pakistan . At one point during the exchanges, when a journalist spoke about all the services rendered by Pakistan for the US, Clinton snapped, We have also given you billions.

The US secretary of state also took a swipe at the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies, saying, `If we are going to have a mature partnership where we work together` then `there are issues that not just the US but others have with your government and with your military security establishment.` She said she was more than willing to hear every complaint about the US` but the relationship had to be a two-way street.

Clinton appeared to get feisty after a meeting with university students in Lahore where she had to entertain several whiny questions about the United States` treatment of a long-serving ally. They described a litany of slights, betrayals and misunderstandings that add up to a national narrative of grievance, against which she did her best to push back, the New York Times said in its description of the event.

And push back she did. Faced with criticism about what some Pakistanis believe is inadequate US aid, she suggested to a group of Pakistani businessmen that it`s about time the country also learnt to take care of itself instead.

She then issued a stark warning to the country: You do have 180 million people. Your population is projected to be about 300 million. And I don`t know what you`re gonna do with that kind of challenge, unless you start planning right now.

Clinton`s remarks rocked Washington on the eve of President Obama`s seventh, and possibly final, review of the Af-Pak strategy, slated for Friday. She is challenging them...it is a high-risk strategy, Richard Haas, a prominent policy pundit, said in a television interview.