Al Qaeda considerably weakened as 'threat' to US

The United States said on Tuesday the al Qaeda network has been considerably weakened as a threat to America, but there is need to do more before it is ultimately defeated.

"We have made serious inroads in weakening al Qaeda. There's more to be done. There are these nodes now in Yemen, in Somalia and other areas that we have to continue to go after," US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

He underlined the US was on "the path to seriously weakening al Qaida as a threat to this country". He said those suggesting it was "good time to pull back are wrong."

"This is a good time to keep putting the pressure on to make sure that we really do undermine their ability to conduct any kind of attacks on this country," Panetta said at the National Defense University.

"We know that, but they're still there, and we still have to keep the pressure on," Panetta said in response to a question.

The new Defence Secretary said US forces can go after the key leadership of al Qaeda that "I think has largely lead this effort."

"We have seriously weakened them. We certainly took out Osama bin Laden, which I think seriously weakened their leadership as well. And I think there are additional leaders that we can go after," he said.

He underlined by weakening their leadership, the US will undermine al Qaeda's ability to ultimately put together that universal jihad that they have always tried to put together in order to conduct attacks on the US.