WASHINGTON, Jan 15: Incoming US President Barack Obama has pledged to try to succeed where his predecessor George W. Bush failed, by catching or killing Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

But Obama, who takes office on January 20, is likely to face many of the same challenges his predecessor did in attempting to neutralise the man reportedly behind the September 11 attacks.

Obama said on Wednesday that Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden remained the “number one threat” to US security. He spoke after a new voice recording emerged in which Bin Laden called for a holy war to restore “Jerusalem and Palestine”.

Said Obama: “We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that they cannot create safe havens that can attack Americans. That’s the bottom line.”

In a presidential debate Obama had said that if elected, his administration “will kill Bin Laden. We will crush Al Qaeda.”

In the interview with CBS News, he signaled a more measured approach to catching the elusive Bin Laden, refusing to deliver any “dead or alive” ultimatums. “I think that we have to so weaken his infrastructure that, whether he is technically alive or not, he is so pinned down that he cannot function,” Obama said.—AFP