NEW DELHI - The United States envoy on Friday hailed India as one of the "growing engines" of world economy.

Related readings:  Indian probe agency raids TV office over telecom scam  India's PM presses on despite scandals  India to buy 6 next generation subs  Japan and India sign free trade pact

"Now we have India growing at 9 percent per year. The country is one of the growing engines of world economy. There is so much progress in the relationship in the last few years. It is growing in a great direction," said US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer.

The US envoy was addressing a function at the US Embassy in India.

Present at the occasion was Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao who said that "three successive US presidents in this century had made vast personal contribution towards transformation of India-US relationship."

"I had just returned from a very productive visit to the United States. It underscored once again not just the quality and level of India-US engagements but also unparallelled breadth and diversity in our relationship," she said.