The Bush administration has no comprehensive plan for dealing with the threat posed by Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas, where Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding, according to a new report yesterday from the research arm of Congress.

The Government Accountability Office also said, “the United States has not met its national security goals to destroy terrorist threats and close the safe haven” provided by the tribal areas, despite having spent more than $10 billion for Pakistani military operations in the mountainous border region.”

GAO staff members interviewed experts inside and outside the government, and “we found broad agreement … that al-Qaida had regenerated its ability to attack the United States and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven” in the unpoliced region, the report says. American intelligence officials have previously portrayed the proliferation of militants in the Pakistani tribal areas as a central threat to American security and have expressed frustration at the lack of progress there by Pakistan forces. But the report also supports an argument by congressional Democrats that the war in Iraq and administration bungling have helped create new danger in an area largely out of the control of any sovereign state.