Lawmakers reacted with outrage Thursday to a new government report that says the United States has failed to address a terrorist safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal areas and lacks a comprehensive strategy to deal with threats there.

Despite providing Pakistan $10.5 billion for its war on terrorism, the Government Accountability Office report says “al Qaeda had regenerated its ability to attack the United States and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven” in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

“Since 2002, the U.S. embassy in Pakistan has had no Washington-supported, comprehensive plan to combat terrorism and close the terrorist safe haven in the FATA,” the report said.

Democrats said the lack of a plan violates not only the Bush administration’s 2003 National Strategy for Combating Terrorism but also the 2007 law implementing the recommendations of the Sept. 11 Commission, which calls for such a plan.

“The Bush administration has had six years to come up with a plan to get Osama bin Laden and his group, but it is still flying by the seat of its pants,” said Sen. Robert Menendez , D-N.J., who joined top foreign policy Democrats and Republicans in requesting the report.

The report bolsters Democratic complaints that the war in Iraq has been a distraction from the “real war” on terrorism, and that Pakistan has diverted U.S. money toward an arms race with India, not fighting terrorists in the lawless border region with Afghanistan.

“Even after the passage of congressional mandates and the administration’s own directives, we’re still wandering around in a metaphorical desert rather than mapping out a coherent plan,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard L. Berman , D-Calif. His panel will hold a hearing on the report May 7.

Of the $10.5 billion sent to Pakistan, the country’s government spent about $5.8 billion on the FATA and border region, GAO said. Pakistan deployed 120,000 troops to the area, 1,400 of which were killed.

“The government of Pakistan has used the assistance it has received from the United States for the war on terrorism precisely for the purpose in which it was intended,” said Mark Tavlarides, a vice president at Van Scoyoc Associates, which represents the Embassy of Pakistan.

Despite those efforts, al Qaeda has been able to regenerate, the report said.