The US is worried that Kuwait and Qatar are not doing enough to combat the financing of al-Qaeda, according to officials and leaked diplomatic cables.

The Obama administration expresses fears that the two countries are effectively allowing al-Qaeda to circumvent tighter controls in Saudi Arabia and that pilgrims on the annual Hajj to Mecca also play a big role in funding the group.

But US officials praise Saudi Arabia itself for stepping up action against terrorist financing with high-level arrests and prosecutions, a public fatwa by the Grand Mufti and the establishment of a working terrorist financing unit. “Interaction and co-operation with the Saudis has got better over the past year,” said a senior administration official. “Because the US government has made terror financing a high priority and relentlessly raised this over and over with all these countries, we have put substantial financial pressure on al-Qaeda.”