Responding to a query on a remark made by President-elect Barack Obama, at his press conference in Chicago, in the wake of last week's terror attacks in Mumbai, the ex-official also endorsed the stand of the incoming US president.

"I think that what President-elect Obama said about the fact that every country, under the United Nations, has the right to defend itself, that is absolutely true. But it's also true that they are investigating everything right now and that it is not appropriate for those of us that are not in the government to comment on this," Albright said on CNN's Situation Room programme.

"I think that sovereign nations obviously have a right to protect themselves. Beyond that, I don't want to comment on the specific situation that has taken place in South Asia right now," Obama had said when asked if India had the same right as he claimed his administration had in going after terror targets inside Pakistan with or without the permission of the government in Islamabad.