US says india is maintaining positive economic growth

WASHINGTON: The US has asked Indians not to look at its leaders' comments about the growing prosperity of their middle class contributing to the rise in global food prices in a negative fashion.

Commenting on angry public reaction to a statement by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday "I think the statement just gets to the basic fact that the world and the international system is changing."

"Certainly, nobody in the US is trying to single out a government or nobody in the United States is expressing the sentiment that it is not a good thing that there is greater calorie intake among more people around the world than ever before," he said. "That is a positive thing."

"And the fact that you have greater economic prosperity around the world, whether it's in India or China or elsewhere around the world, and as a result, there are different standards of living, a positive sense, that is good for the international system.

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"That really speaks to some of the goals that were expressed at the inception of the current international financial, economic, and political system when you look back to the immediate post-war period in '46, '47, '48. It's a positive thing.

"So again, I'm not sure what prism people are viewing the remarks through, but I would encourage them to not look at them in a way that is intended to single out, in a negative fashion, the people of India or anybody else around the world," McCormack said.