Washington, Sep 29 (IANS): The White House is vigorously defending a controversial loan guarantee scheme for clean technology industry saying it was aimed at enabling the US to compete effectively with the Chinese and Indians.

President Barack Obama's goal here was to help the vital clean technology industry "take hold and grow in this country so that we can compete effectively with the Chinese, the Indians and the Europeans, the Brazilians, in the 21st century," White House spokesman told reporters Wednesday.

Asked about differences within the White House on supporting Solyndra, a collapsed solar-panel maker that was the first company to receive funding under the programme, he said: "It would be a remarkable day when on major policy issues there were no debates or disagreements or differences of opinion about how best to approach it."

Noting that to help the industry grow, "there is risk involved," Carney said: "Overall, we believe that the investments are vital because we are not content with the idea that we should cede vital industries of the 21st century to our competitors overseas."

"It's just-we don't want be buying all this important technology from the Indians, the Chinese, the Europeans, the Brazilians," Carney said. "And I don't think most Americans want-they don't view America as that kind of country."

And it's vital to this country's economic growth that we, in effect, take these risks, as previous generations and previous administrations have, to make sure that the United States of America continues to be leading the world in cutting-edge technologies.