New Delhi, Aug 11 - Amid shooting commodity prices and a deficient monsoon, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday assured that the government was taking all possible steps to contain food inflation and said the country had enough food stocks to meet any exigency.

He told a delegation from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) that the government was taking stock of the drought situation and will do everything possible to deal with the impact of deficient rains and food inflation.

'The prime minister was quite confident that the country has enough buffer stock and the government will be able to handle the food inflation efficiently,' FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra told IANS after a review of the government's 100-day agenda.

'He also told us that central agencies like the Food Corp of India have buffer stocks of 50 million tonnes of rice and wheat, which will help tackle both availability and prices of food in the country,' Mitra added.

The prime minister's comments also came against the backdrop of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's warning that the spectre of drought looms large over as many as 161 out of 626 districts in India due to deficient monsoon.

'One hundred and sixty one districts have been declared drought-prone. As far as sowing is concerned, 20 percent would be down,' Mukherjee told reporters Tuesday on the margins of an annual conference with officials of the income tax administration.

'Monsoon situation is still erratic,' he warned, but added: 'But there is no point of pressing the panic button. You all will go and start chanting drought, drought, drought and it will have an adverse impact.'

Nearly 60 percent of India's farm sector is dependent on monsoon rains between June and September, but this year has witnessed one of the driest spells in eight decades, as per the Indian Meteorological Department.