Asserting that the relationship between India and the United States is set to scale new heights, a top US official has refuted all apprehensions that under Obama administration there is diminution of New Delhi's importance to Washington.

The upcoming visit of the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India will answer some of those who are whispering that President Obama's new comprehensive strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan has somehow caused a diminution of India's importance to the United States, the official said.

"I am here to tell you that that is absolutely not the case. On the contrary, this is a time of great optimism and of great promise in our relations with India," said Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia.

"In a few weeks, as all of you know, Secretary of State Clinton is going to be going out to India to announce with our Indian friends our new strategic partnership between our two great nations," Blake said in his key note address to a meeting on Indo-US relationship organised by the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.

Blake said the victory of Congress party in the recent general elections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's new mandate and Obama's strong support for strengthening ties with India has opened the way for a new and invigorated partnership between the two countries.

Obama and Clinton view India as one of the key countries in the 21st century that will help shape the world of the 21st century, he observed.

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