AWALPINDI, Pakistan, Oct. 29 - Seated in his plush new office at the heavily guarded headquarters of the Pakistani Army, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan chatted amiably and boastfully about Pakistan's contribution to the American-led campaign against terrorism. But when the topic of American foreign policy arose, he bristled.

"O.K., tactically we are getting hold of people here and here and here, but then what's the end?" asked General Sultan, the chief spokesman for Pakistan's military. "Until the time you shut down the factory, you will keep picking up the products. You don't shut down the factory until you resolve the disputes."

General Sultan's remarks reflect a growing frustration with the United States by the government of Pakistan, which is perhaps the Bush administration's most important ally in the fight to capture or kill militant Islamists associated with Al Qaeda. Pakistan's army has continually conducted raids and sweeps along the border of Afghanistan, where leaders of Al Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden, are still believed to be hiding nearly three years after they were driven out of Afghanistan.

America's failure to resolve festering disputes in the Muslim world, the general said, is undermining whatever Pakistan has done.

Privately, Pakistani officials, from top generals to seasoned diplomats, bemoan the American-led invasion of Iraq, saying it reinforced suspicions that the principal interest of the United States was in controlling oil and protecting Israel.

General Sultan's fortress-like new office and his frustration with American policy symbolize the quandary of Pakistan's leadership over the American-led antiterror effort. Pakistan's army and government are enjoying the fruits of billions of dollars in American aid, but they are hunted by Islamic militants themselves - the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, narrowly escaped two assassination attempts last December. In truth, the problems in Pakistan cannot be easily solved, even with American help, according to independent Pakistani analysts. No one is quite sure what policies, if any, would end support for Islamic militancy. And the failure of General Musharraf's army-dominated government to restore full democracy, crack down on hard-line religious schools that spread militancy and reform a dysfunctional and xenophobic public education system have also contributed to the problem.

Whatever the cause, Pakistani perceptions of the United States' efforts to combat terrorism and of President Bush are startlingly dark, according to a public opinion survey conducted by the Pew Research Center this spring. Only 16 percent of Pakistanis support the campaign against terrorism. More than 50 percent said it was motivated by the United States' desire to control Middle East oil, dominate the world and take aim at Muslim governments seen as hostile to America. Only 7 percent of Pakistanis said they had a favorable view of Mr. Bush. Sixty-five percent said they had a favorable view of Mr. bin Laden.

The Pakistani government is also facing an enemy that is far different and far more ethereal than the one it expected, according to Pakistani officials and Western diplomats. Instead of emerging as a mass popular movement that could be confronted with dialogue or arrests, Islamic militancy has been driven underground in Pakistan and has metastasized into a small, loosely knit covert movement linked by an enthralling Islamist ideology, according to Pakistani officials.

A stalemate, in a sense, has emerged, with the militants unable to carry out spectacular attacks, but the government unable to eradicate the militants.

Adding to the complexity of the problem, the angry poor are not the only ones drawn to militant Islam, according to Pakistani intelligence and law enforcement officials. Arrests in the past year have uncovered small numbers of doctors, engineers, college graduates and military members who have joined or aided small cells of militants.

Simply arresting or killing Al Qaeda's senior leadership, a strategy Bush administration officials call "decapitation," will not stop the spread of militancy, Pakistani officials say. Instead, they say a broad-based American-led military, political and social effort to eliminate Muslim political grievances and poverty is needed.

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