WASHINGTON: Close on the heels of President George W Bush's remarks linking Indians' food habits to rising global prices of commodities, the United States has now partly attributed the surge in oil prices to the increased demand in India and China.

''There are a lot of different ways that we can reduce our dependence, but we have more to do and it's just - and also I would point out that, obviously, the demand for oil is growing around the world,'' White House Deputy Spokesman Scott Stanzel said in a briefing.

''Many developing nations like India or China are having greatly increased demand, which obviously is having an impact on price,'' the senior White House official said.

Three days ago, Bush had specifically took the case of Indian middle class to argue that its demand for better nutrition was a factor in pushing the global food prices up.

''There are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population.

Meanwhile, the senior White House official also defended US policy on biofuels saying it was having just a ''small impact'' on the rising prices of food commodities.