Blog: Is Obama the techiest President ever?

Catching or killing Osama bin Laden will be one of the key targets of Barack Obama's administration as it is "critical" to American national security, the US president-elect confirmed last night.

In his first televised interview since his historic election, Mr Obama made good on his rhetoric from the campaign trail that the hunt for bin Laden would remain top priority for the US.

He told CBS that "it is a top priority for us to stamp out Al-Qaeda once and for all" and that killing or capturing the group’s mastermind Osama bin Laden was "critical" to the US.

"Particularly in light of the problems that we’re having in Afghanistan, which has continued to worsen. We’ve got to shore up those efforts," the President-elect said.

Mr Obama also revealed that he is taking very seriously the threat of a major terrorist attack on America in the next few weeks, after warnings from both sides of the Atlantic that terrorists would step up the activity during the transition period during and after the dying days of the Bush presidency.

"I think it’s important to get a national security team in place because transition periods are potentially times of vulnerability to a terrorist attack. We want to make sure that there is as seamless a transition on national security as possible," he said.

The Bush Administration has been defined largely by the 9/11 attacks, which came within a year of his taking office, and President Bush has repeatedly described the acute vulnerability of the US during a transition.

Mr Bush's aides point out that al-Qaeda’s first assault on the World Trade Centre occurred little more than a month after Bill Clinton became President in 1993. There was an alleged attempt to bomb Glasgow Airport in Gordon Brown’s first days in Downing Street and a London nightclub attack was narrowly thwarted.

Mr Obama said that, as soon as he takes office, he will take other measures to minimise the terrorist threat, working with his security team and the military to reduce US troop numbers in Iraq, shore up Afghanistan and to eradicate al-Qaeda.

"I will call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my national security apparatus, and we will start executing a plan that draws down our troops (from Iraq)," he said.

On the campaign trail, Mr Obama vowed to pull one or two combat brigades out of Iraq every month until after 16 months, only a residual security force of unspecified size remains. Some of those brigades would head to Afghanistan.

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