The terrorist threat to the United States from Al-Qaeda [Images] is not going away and it needs to be taken very seriously, US President Barack Obama [Images] has said.

Addressing a joint press conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister, Kevin M Rudd, at the White House on Tuesday, Obama said: "It's important for us to stay on the offensive and dismantle these terrorist organisations wherever they are."

"It is a difficult task. It's one that requires us to stay focused. It requires effective coordinated action," Obama said.

"It requires recognition that we will not just solve these problems militarily, but we're also going to have to be much more effective diplomatically; we're going to have to be much more effective on the development front," he added.

Obama's administration is currently in the final stages of coming out with a new policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan. "My expectation would be that over the next several years you are going to see a more comprehensive strategy, a more focused strategy, a more disciplined strategy to achieve our common goals," he said, without going into details about his new policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

'America's image has improved'
"I haven't looked at the latest polling around the world, but I think it's fair to say that the response that people have had to our administration and the steps we have taken are ones that are restoring a sense of confidence and the ability of the United States to assert global leadership," Obama said at a news conference later on Tuesday night.

In the run up to his election campaign, Obama and the Democratic party leadership had alleged that the wrong policies of his predecessor George Bush [Images], specially the two wars, had brought down the image of the US in the world and made the country more unsafe.

Obama and his team had vowed to improve the image of the US after coming to power.

'Status quo in Middle East unsustainable'
"It's not easier than it was, but I think it's just as necessary. We don't yet know what the Israeli government is going to look like. We don't yet know what the future shape of Palestinian leadership is going to be comprised of. What we do know is this; that the status quo is unsustainable," Obama said.

"That it is critical for us to advance a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in their own states with peace and security," he asserted.

Referring to the appointment of his Middle East Envoy George Mitchell, Obama said that by doing this his administration has signalled that he is going to be serious from day one in trying to move the parties in a direction that acknowledges that reality.

"How effective these negotiations may be, I think we're going to have to wait and see," he said.

'No racism issue during my presidency'
"Right now the American people are judging me exactly the way I should be judged, and that is, are we taking the steps to improve liquidity in the financial markets, create jobs, get businesses to reopen, keep America safe," the US President said.

Replying to a query about the issue of race dominating in his first 64 days as the president, Obama said, "I think that the last 64 days has been dominated by me trying to figure out how we're going to fix the economy, and that affects black, brown and white."

"You know, obviously, at the Inauguration I think that there was justifiable pride on the part of the country that we had taken a step to move us beyond some of the searing legacies of racial discrimination in this country, but that lasted about a day," he said.