WASHINGTON - The US has said it takes the period of transition to the Barack Obama administration ‘very seriously’ and has communicated to Pakistan ‘very well’ about their important responsibility and role on terror.

‘I think I would just say we do take the period of transition very seriously,’ White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Monday when asked if the US was on high alert as terrorists may take advantage of the transition from President George Bush to president-elect Obama.

‘As for Pakistan, we’re communicating with them very well, and I think they understand their responsibility and the important role they play…,’ he said referring to warnings from Bush, Obama and other US leaders in this regard.

‘We do want to see those who perpetuate these attacks brought to justice, and that’s something that we’ve tried to impress upon all the governments in that region,’ Fratto said when asked if the US planned to honour the victims of the Nov 26 Mumbai terror attacks.

‘It’s something that we try to do here also,’ he said adding, ‘As we think about reflecting over the past seven years, certainly since the 9/11 attacks, we need to try to defeat terrorists in every way possible’.

Be that ‘through the use of armed conflict, by taking the fight to them, using our intelligence services to try to prevent attacks, and when we do find those who have committed attacks, to bring them to justice,’ Fratto said.

‘And we’ve assembled a large coalition of nations who stand with us in trying to defeat terrorism. Again, we do it on the intelligence side; we do it on the financial intelligence side, trying to track the money.

‘And it’s a global effort and we have to try to be right all the time, and bring anyone who plans or carries out a terrorist attack to justice,’ Fratto said.