Carlos Pascual, the State Department's special envoy for international energy issues was reportedly misquoted by a reporting agency about the reduction in India's import of crude oil from Iran.

It was earlier reported that Pascual remarked that he was `not too impressed' with the India's efforts to cut its imports of oil from Iran. However, State department spokesperson Victoria Nuland clarified that he actually said that 'I am not doing press today' and not 'I am not impressed', as reported in the news.

Pascual is in New Delhi with his team to hold discussions over the whole energy issue with the Indian officials. Nuland also said that he will not discuss the efforts of the US to persuade other countries to reduce import of oil from Iran, contradicting to the media reports that said that he will indeed discuss the issues with the officials in the county.

The Indian government is intending to reduce crude oil imports from Iran by as much as 11.1 per cent during the 2012-13 fiscal. India imports about 80 per cent f its crude oil requirements from international markets and out of the total import about 12 per cent comes from Iran. Iran is India's second largest oil supplier. Iran is struggling to find buyers for its crude oil in the international markets due to sanctions by the European countries and US.

The governments in Europe and the US are urging Asian countries to reduce oil imports from Iran so as to make their sanctions more effective in order to force Tehran to come clean on its nuclear programme. Iran is suspected of covertly developing nuclear weapons, a charge it denies and maintains that it has the right to harness civilian nuclear energy for generating power.