WASHINGTON, Aug 18: The United States needs to review its relations with countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and send a message of hope to their people, the US Congress was told.

The House Committee on Homeland Security, which held a special session on Tuesday evening to review the US strategy to combat terrorism, was also told that only a very small portion of the US aid for Pakistan was meant for madressah reforms.

"Bin Laden's message is one of despair that leads eventually to death," Thomas Kean, chairman of the 9/11 Commission, told the Committee. "If we don't have a message to these people to show that there is a better life, that we can actually provide a path to that better life, that we are on their side, not somebody else's side, we're not going to win this."

He reminded US lawmakers that the war against terrorism cannot be won by killing terrorists and referred to a recent restatement by US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld who said that terrorists were being created faster than the US could kill them.

Talking about the need to engage Muslims in the war against terror, Mr Kean said three countries - Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan - were particularly important.

"We believe the whole way in which we do business in that part of the world, it's got to change," said the chairman of the 9/11 Commission while urging the US administration to go beyond governments and engage the people of these countries.

"If we're, for instance, upset that these madressahs that kids are going to in that part of the world are teaching hate, and teaching hate of the West, well there's got to be some alternative."

"A lot of the young children are going to those madressah because there is no other school. There is no other opportunity for parents to send them anywhere except the madressahs," he observed.

He regretted that only $30 million out of a package of $3.1 billion for Pakistan was meant for madressah reforms and demanded a greater US involvement in providing alternative means of education to the children going to the madressahs.

Mr Kean said that if any of these three countries - Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan - "went the wrong direction, we would have a world of trouble on the international stage and in the terrorist problem."

Calling for a change in US policies towards Saudi Arabia, the chairman of the 9/11 commission said: "Our relationship in the past with Saudi Arabia, to be very blunt, has been oil. We're allies of the royal family. They ensure us enough oil. And that's sort of been the relationship."

Explaining the changes the 9/11 Commission would want to see in America's relations with the Arab kingdom, Mr Kean said the United States now needs to work with the Saudi royal family to bring some changes in that country.

The Saudi rulers, he said, were also recognizing the need for change and were accepting the fact that "Islamic militants would like to overthrow them just as much as they'd like to injure us."

Vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Lee Hamilton, told the Congress committee that the real challenge to US foreign policy was to win over those Muslims who were sympathetic to Osama.

"The vast numbers of Muslims who admire Osama bin Laden, do not support the idea of violence. And if you're going to win the war on terrorism, you've got to persuade those people that we offer a better vision and an agenda of opportunity for them," said Mr Hamilton.

Referring to the madressahs, Mr Hamilton said the $30 million given to Pakistan for madressah reforms were "like a drop in the bucket." "But, it does say to these people who are seeking a better life, who want some of the same things you and I seek, that we're on their side, and we're trying to help them with their problem, and that's a very important message to convey."

But ultimately, he said, Pakistan has to solve its own education programme and so does Saudi Arabia. The United States, he said, needs to let Pakistan and Saudi Arabia know that it's in their own national interests to reform their school systems.

And if the two governments decide not to make those reforms, then the United States should let them know "that their life is pretty miserable if they don't begin to deal with those problems, they're not going to be in charge over the long-term."