WASHINGTON - Fresh from a seven-day trip that included Pakistan and Afghanistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the United States work in both the countries was 'productive, but 'serious challenges remain in the relationship between the three countries. Speaking before a key US Congressional panel, she said partnership with Pakistan was key to the success in ending the war in Afghanistan. But she insisted Pakistan should eliminate safe havens for the Haqqani network and other militants around its border with Afghanistan. I explained that trying to distinguish between so-called good terrorists and bad terrorists is ultimately self-defeating and dangerous. Clinton renewed her call on Pakistan to close safe havens for militants, saying the uneasy partner must be 'unequivocal in its approach. Clinton said she delivered a 'frank message to Pakistan that it was urgent to act against the extremist Haqqani network, which she blamed for anti-US attacks in Afghanistan. No one who targets innocent civilians of any nationality should be tolerated or protected. Were not suggesting that Pakistan sacrifice its own security. Quite the opposite, Clinton told the House committee, noting the sacrifices the Pakistan military has made in the fight. Clinton said it is important for an inclusive Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process in which the parties talk to former insurgents who are ready to renounce violence. We have been clear about the necessary outcomes of any negotiation: Insurgents must renounce violence, abandon Al Qaeda, and abide by the constitution of Afghanistan, including its protections for women and minorities. If insurgents cannot meet those red-lines, they will face continued and unrelenting assault, Clinton said, according to her prepared testimony. Clinton said Pakistan has a huge stake in getting Taliban and other insurgents to the negotiating table as well. We look to Pakistan to encourage the Taliban and other insurgents to participate in an Afghan peace process in good faith - both through unequivocal public statements and by closing off the safe havens, she added. For our part, the United States is working with the Afghan government to conclude a new Strategic Partnership that will provide a framework for cooperation long after the transition is concluded in 2014, Clinton said. It will send a strong signal about our enduring commitment to the people of Afghanistan and the future of the region. Clinton said the United States work in both Afghanistan and Pakistan has yielded significant results, but serious challenges remain in the relationship between the three countries. Fresh off a week-long trip that included stops in both countries, Clinton testified before the committee, explaining that the success of the US presence in the region sometimes gets lost in the public debate. Osama bin Laden and many of his top lieutenants are dead. The threat remains real and urgent, especially from Al Qaedas affiliates, she said, according to the prepared remarks of her testimony. But Al Qaedas ability to conduct operations has been greatly diminished through cooperation on and off the battlefield, Clinton said. Many of our successes against Al Qaeda would not have been possible without close cooperation between the United States and Pakistan, she said. In Afghanistan, where security forces still have a long way to go before they can take on added responsibility, and where extreme poverty and corruption remain key challenges going forward, Clinton noted that there are 7 million more children in school a decade after the United States went to war in the country. Nearly 40 percent of Afghan girls are in school today, she said, a sharp reversal from when the Taliban ruled the country and prohibited girls from attending school. Working with our Afghan and Pakistani partners is not always easy, but these relationships are advancing Americas national security interests, Clinton said. And walking away would undermine those interests. The Secretary of State also discussed the three-track strategy between the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan that she unveiled on her trip, a strategy that has been dubbed fight, talk, build. Clinton told the committee it is important to build capacity for sustained economic growth and development in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rest of the region as a means to building lasting stability and security. People need a realistic hope for a better life, a job and a chance to provide for their family, she said. So it is critical to our broader effort that civilian assistance continues in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. As the administration works to strengthen oversight and effectiveness of its programmes in the region, Clinton told the committee she would be sending a comprehensive status update on civilian assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan next week that would detail plans for both short-term stabilisation and long-term development programmes. US lawmakers told Clinton at the hearing that they had deep concerns about Pakistan and supported the Obama administrations decision to suspend about a third of the annual $2.7 billion annual defence aid to Pakistan. Our two countries are at a crossroads. We cannot sustain a partnership with Islamabad if it pursues policies that are hostile to US interests and jeopardize American lives, said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the Republican-led committee. Representative Howard Berman, the top lawmaker on the committee from Clintons Democratic Party, also voiced concern about Pakistan but said it was critical to maintain the $1.5 billion-a-year package in civilian assistance. These are the critical building blocks of a peaceful and prosperous Pakistan - and ultimately, a stable Afghanistan and South Asia, Berman said. As coalition forces draw down their numbers ahead of a planned pull-out in 2014, Clinton said it is important for the United States and its partners to support an Afghan-led economic strategy that will improve agricultural productivity, develop natural resources, increase exports, and strengthen the countrys financial sector. She also noted the importance of promoting trade between Afghanistan, Pakistan and its neighbours through the building of new infrastructure and other ways to move goods that will create new jobs across the region. As the United States gradually reduces its military footprint in Afghanistan over the next few years, Clinton told the members of Congress, Washington must still remain engaged in the region. America paid a heavy price for disengaging after the Soviets left in 1989, she said. We cannot afford to make that mistake again. We have to be smart and strategic. And we have to work together to protect our interests. Hillary said Pakistan should do more to punish militants over the 2008 Mumbai attacks but stopped short of making it a condition in ties with Washington. Clinton said the United States was speaking to both India and Pakistan about Lashkar-e-Taiba which investigators say carried out the bloodbath that killed 166 people. Every time we meet with the Pakistanis, we press them on LeT, about the continuing failure in our view to fulfill all of the requirements necessary for prosecution related to the Mumbai attacks, Clinton said. And we will continue to do so, she told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But she stopped short of linking action on the group to the US relationship with Pakistan, which is already tense in the wake of a secret US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May. I do not want to commit at this time to taking such a path because I think its important that there be further consideration of all of the implications, Clinton said. Representative Ed Royce, a member of the rival Republican Party from California, voiced concern that the United States was sending the wrong message to Inter-Services Intelligence agency by not elevating the issue. If we dont drive this point home now, it seems to me that some in the ISI in their assistance to the LeT in orchestrating these attacks are setting in motion the types of policies that could lead to conflict between India and Pakistan, Royce said. Agencies add: Clinton appealed for Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Muslim-majority nations to respect religious minorities, saying some are treated brutally. This is one of our biggest problems in the world right now. There needs to be a greater acceptance of religious tolerance and in so many places there is no history of religious tolerance, Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Clinton was responding to a question from Representative Chris Smith, who voiced concern about Christians, Hindus and other religious minorities in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Egypt. The problem was not only against Christians or against Hindus, its also against different sects of Muslims, the top US diplomat said. There are Islamic sects in Afghanistan and Pakistan and elsewhere theyre discriminated against, persecuted and their adherents brutally treated. Smith also voiced concern about the safety in China of Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught lawyer who was jailed for more than four years after exposing abuses in Chinas one-child policy. We hear he may have been beaten to death. We dont know. But please, call the foreign minister (of China) on that, if you would, Madam Secretary, Smith said. Clinton promised to follow up on his concerns. She hailed Turkey as a positive force as she prepared to head to Istanbul for a long-awaited conference on Afghanistan. The State Department said Clinton will take part in Wednesdays meeting in Istanbul, which will look ahead at Afghanistans future as US combat troops prepare to leave at the end of 2014. Clinton said that Turkey, which is the only Muslim-majority member of Nato and has 1,800 soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan, has a great ability to communicate in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Turkey has a great deal of credibility with a number of the countries, and therefore its involvement is a very helpful assistance to us, Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Asif Ali Zardari also plan to attend the Istanbul conference. The State Department said that Clinton would also visit London on Tuesday to deliver an address to a conference on cyberspace led by the British government. Meanwhile, a US general accused Pakistan of allowing insurgents to fire on US troops in Afghanistan. Lieutenant General Curtis Scaparrotti, the deputy commander of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, said that the rocket and mortar fire against his forces appears to come from within sight of Pakistani military posts. In some locations from time to time you will see what just appears to us to be a collaboration... or at a minimum a looking the other way, he told reporters in Washington via video link. He said that the border forces come from Pakistans Frontier Corps, who are locally recruited and not as highly trained as regular army units.