Hours before his prime-time press conference, President Obama held a "two-and-two" with Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the Oval Office this afternoon, touching on the financial rescue plan and his plan for Afghanistan.

Obama said he and Rudd spent "the bulk of our time talking about the global financial crisis," and said it was a "great meeting of the minds" before next week's G20 summit. Asked about Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's comments on the Hill today, Obama supported his call for Congressional action so that the federal government could get authority to intervene with non-bank financial institutions.

"In the absence of that capacity, you end up with the situation that we've been in," Obama said, referring to situations like AIG posing "systemic risks to the system." "We will work in consultation with members of Congress. That will be just one phase of a broader regulatory framework that we're going to have to put in place to prevent these kinds of crises from happening again."

He also called for cooperation among other nations to "be able to hammer out a better approach than we've been taking recently."

Obama was also asked about specific plans for Afghanistan, with some reports indicating he may roll out details later this week. Obama said the 90-day strategic review was still under way. He did address terrorism more broadly, citing the 9/11 attacks but also the bombing in Bali, which he said Australians remember.

"It's important for us to stay on the offensive and to dismantle these terrorist organizations wherever they are," he said. "It is a difficult task. It's one that requires us to stay focused. It requires effective coordinated action. It requires a recognition that we will not just solve these problems militarily, but we're also going to have to be much more effective diplomatically; we're going to have to be much more effective on the development front. And my expectation would be that over the next several years you are going to see a more comprehensive strategy, a more focused strategy, a more disciplined strategy to achieve our common goals."