WASHINGTON: Top Indian cabinet ministers met their U.S counterparts here on Wednesday to assure them about New Delhi's commitment to advancing bilateral relations and agreements in the first high-level interaction between the two sides in several months, amid mounting concerns that domestic political pressures are undermining milestones reached between the two countries.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session for talks that officials said covered a "wide range of issues," including obviously the nuclear deal.

Mukherjee is said to have used the opportunity to assure the U.S side of the Indian government's commitment to the nuclear deal in the face of the intense political scrutiny it is receiving in India. Washington is getting increasingly antsy about the roadblocks the deal has run into in India and Rice has expressed concern about the clock running out.

Mukherjee was not the only one offering assurance that India's vigorous democratic process was more about checks and balances than obstruction.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath were both in the U.S this week pledging further reforms, including opening up of the retail sector that is causing heartburn in the Indian heartland.

Chidambaram offset assurances on the retail front by broadly hinting that the government may try and take some measures to cushion the impact of the rising rupee that has driven export-oriented Indian companies, including the IT sector, to despair, while delighting American manufacturers who see greater export opportunity on account of a weakening dollar.

But there is concern in Washington that New Delhi is taking its eyes of the ball on various key issues as the UPA government is buffeted by political winds and India seems to be entering an election mode ahead of schedule. The Bush administration itself, weighed down by the Iraq albatross, is struggling to keep other major foreign policy issues in focus and the Rice-Mukherjee engagement offered a chance for the two sides to review progress on the nuclear deal and other key issues between the two sides.

Officials on both sides were not immediately available to elaborate precisely on any progress made, and although there was much speechifying on all sides (Rice and Mukherjee delivered speeches on Washington on Thursday on climate change), there was lack of clarity on the next steps in the nuclear deal (a major American concern) and the fate of the roaring rupee (a major Indian concern).

It was not all concessions from India.

In Washington, Mukherjee told a meeting of major economies on climate change and energy security convened by the U.S that India’s targeted growth of 8-10 per cent annual in the coming decades means it "cannot compromise" on the need to drive up energy consumption. However, he assured delegates that even as India pursues economic growth, its per-capita green house gas emissions will not increase beyond those of the industrialized countries, a promise first articulated by the prime minister in Germany.

"We have a very small individual carbon footprint with per-capita CO2 emissions being just about a quarter of the world's average," Mukherjee insisted. "However, our willingness to engage in finding practical, pragmatic solutions, and cooperating in advanced clean technologies for the benefit of entire humankind are second to none."