When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met in Washington this week with President Barack Obama, the White House lavished attention on the unassuming, bookish Indian leader. There was a state dinner. There were movie stars. There was a chandelier-filled tent packed with powerful Americans chatting up powerful Indians. There was talk that the two nations had forged "one of the defining relationships" of the century.

It was Washington's way of telling the world's largest democracy that it matters _ despite America's ties to India's main rivals, Pakistan and China.

The visit was heralded by the Indian media, which on Wednesday was awash with descriptions of Singh's welcome. Obama "hit all the right buttons ... to erase any impression that he had downgraded ties with New Delhi in deference to China," The Times of India said on its front page.

But coming just days after Obama's splashy trip to East Asia _ when he met Chinese leader Hu Jintao, walked on the Great Wall and even hinted that Beijing should play a role in India's ever-delicate dealings with Pakistan _ many here are worried that the pomp in Washington hides a more complicated and sometimes fragile relationship with the Obama White House.

"Pageantry is a distraction and we need to look at exactly what was achieved," said former Indian Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh. "Some of the things we thought would be sorted out were not."

Chief among those was an agreement on reprocessing nuclear fuel, part of the landmark civilian atomic energy accord that cemented Indo-U.S. relations under George W. Bush's administration.

While the agreement was widely expected to be concluded during the visit, and Indian newspapers reported that negotiators were under significant pressure to wrap it up, Singh told reporters Tuesday in Washington that "some 'i's need to be dotted and 't's have to be crossed," before the deal is finalized.

Certainly things didn't go badly in Washington. Obama and Singh both insisted the nuclear deal would press forward, and the United States and India have reached agreements on topics from health to education to agriculture.

But other issues, ranging from differences over climate change to Washington's unwillingness to press the Pakistani government as hard on terrorism as New Delhi would like, remain unresolved.

"It's good to see your head of government going on a significant state visit," Mansingh said. But "it didn't quite meet the expectations that were built up."