WASHINGTON - Outgoing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the risk of a terrorist attack remains "the greatest threat" to the United Sates.

"I still am concerned that everyday, the terrorists plot against us," Rice told ABC television. "We have to be right 100 percent of the time, they have to be right once."

For those who were in a position of authority during the September 11, 2001 attacks -- as Rice was as national security adviser to President George W. Bush -- "every day since has been September 12th," she said.

"Undoubtedly defending the homeland continues to be the greatest threat," the top US diplomat said.

She played down the failure to capture Osama bin Laden, the head of the Al-Qaeda network that carried out the September 11 attacks.

"Everyone wants to see the day that Osama bin Laden is brought to justice. But this is not a one-man organization," Rice said.

"And I think we are more capable at dealing with Al-Qaeda, tracking and tracing them, cutting down their financial networks, and most importantly, we've captured or killed an awful lot of their leadership," Rice said.

"That very coherent institution, organization, that perpetrated 9/11 is really not intact any longer, although they remain dangerous," she said.

- AFP /ls