(CNN) - Given the chance, the United States would go after high-value terrorism targets in Pakistan or elsewhere in the same way it took out Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama made clear in an interview with the BBC broadcast Sunday.

"We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan, but we cannot allow someone who is actively planning to kill our people or our our allies' people, we can't allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action," Obama said in the interview conducted last week. "And our hope is and our expectation is that we can achieve that in a way that is fully respectful of Pakistan's sovereignty. But I had made no secret. I had said this when I was running for the presidency, that if I had a clear shot at Bin Laden ... that we'd take it."