New Delhi, Sep 1 - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday set the agenda for the Planning Commission to find ways and means to ensure that India gets back to the high economic growth path and secures its rising appetite for energy.

'We have been through a difficult year because of the global economic downturn, which is only now coming to an end with a slow return to normalcy in the months that lie ahead. The country has also seen a poor monsoon,' the prime minister said.

'I felt it would be useful for the Planning Commission to present its assessment of the overall economic situation to the Minister Members of the Commission,' he told a meeting here of the full plan panel, of which he is chairman.

The meeting, attended by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, among other key policymakers, also reviewed India's energy policy.

'Energy is vital to our economic growth. This is an area where we are a deficit economy. We import over 70 percent of our petroleum energy needs and are also moving to a deficit position in coal,' Manmohan Singh said.