WASHINGTON — President Obama said yesterday his predecessor's administration had lost its "focus" on the war in Afghanistan, forcing the creation of a new strategy aimed at defeating the terrorists who base their operations from there and Pakistan.

"What we want to do is refocus attention on al-Qaida. We are going to root out their networks, their bases," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on the eve of his first overseas trip. He added: "We have to ensure that neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan can serve as a safe haven for al-Qaida."

Obama said last week that he would boost the reinforcements heading to Afghanistan this summer to 21,000 troops, bringing total U.S. forces there to more than 60,000. At that level, he said yesterday, "we now have resourced properly this strategy. It's not going to be an open-ended commitment of infinite resources. We've just got to make sure that we are focused on achieving what we need to achieve with the resources we have."

Much as he did in announcing his strategy on Friday, Obama stuck to discussing a battle against al-Qaida and said little about the Taliban, which controls much of southern Afghani- stan, where much of the fighting is taking place. The president mentioned al-Qaida eight times in the half-hour interview, while his one mention of the Taliban referred to its control of Af- ghanistan at the beginning of the decade.

TAX CUT PROPOSAL

Obama also reiterated his desire to have a permanent middle-class tax cut, pushing back against suggestions that he was willing to let the tax cuts enacted in the stimulus legislation expire after 2010.

"I'm going to be pushing as hard as I can to get it done in this budget ... so we don't see a drop-off," he said. Asked whether he will insist that the tax cuts be made permanent, he said: "Absolutely. I still think it's the right thing to do."

And Obama elaborated on his conversation with the heads of the largest U.S. banks last week. He said he made it clear to them that they need to be more sensitive to the outrage felt by the American people.

"Show some restraint. Show some — show that you get that this is a crisis and everybody has to make sacrifices," he said he told them.

"They agreed. And they recognized it. Now, the proof of the pudding's in the eating. So I expect to see that restraint operate," he added. "Now, the flip side is I have got to explain to the American people, we're not going to get this recovery if we don't see a recovery of the financial sector. And there's no separation between Main Street and Wall Street. We're all in this together."

Obama also said he won't consider speeding up the troop pullout from Iraq even though security has improved and violence has decreased.

"I think the plan that we put forward in Iraq is the right one" because it calls for "a very gradual withdrawal through the national elections in Iraq," he said.

While he didn't dispute the notion of military progress, Obama said there's plenty to do on the political side to resolve differences between the various sectarian groups. Iraq's security forces also need to be trained, he added.

"I'm confident that we're moving in the right direction. But Iraq is not yet completed. We still have a lot of work to do," the president said of the war that's winding down after six years.

The plan that Obama announced last month calls for withdrawing combat troops by the end of August 2010.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.