WASHINGTON (Reuters/AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on has rejected suggestions that she had been sidelined by President Obama. With media reports swirling that Hillarys influence has been usurped by the National Security Council, the top US diplomat insisted she played an important role in crafting the foreign policy agenda. I really stay focused on the work that I do. I broke my elbow, not my larynx. I have been deeply involved in the shaping and implementation of our foreign policy, she said. I dont really pay a lot of attention to what is said, Hillary added. On Wednesday, Hillary gave what the State Department billed as a major foreign policy speech at the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations, but she broke no new ground. Several media commentators have noticed Hillarys less public profile, with The Daily Beasts Tina Brown describing the former NY senator as the invisible woman at State. Its time for Barack Obama to let Hillary take off her burqa, Brown wrote. Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland said Obamas top advisers not Hillary were crafting his foreign policy. Much of the traditional shuttle diplomacy is being handled by a phalanx of special envoys, including veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke who leads Afghanistan-Pakistan efforts as well as Middle East envoy George Mitchell. Vice President Joe Biden, whom Hillary sees most Tuesdays for breakfast, also has taken the lead in such areas as Iraq policy. Foreign policy expert Ned Walker, a former ambassador to Israel and Egypt, said it was too soon to judge whether Hillary was being excluded from major foreign policy decisions. Walker said there was a natural rivalry between the State Department and the National Security Council particularly in the early months of a new presidency. Their physical proximity to the president naturally gives the NSC a boost, said Walker. It is way too early to count her out. Hillary was forced to miss recent major foreign policy events, including Obamas trip to the G8 summit and to Russia, after she fractured her elbow, but she returned to the scene with a major foreign policy speech on Wednesday. Despite Hillarys insistence, speculation about tension in relations was sparked by her decision to miss the Russia and G8 trips and by sharp comments she has made criticizing the failure to fill open posts at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Hillary told USAID employees that she was frustrated by the slow pace of nominations for top posts at the agency, and appeared to criticize the background checks required for candidates to qualify for the positions. At the White House on Wednesday, reporters asked Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs to respond to reports of rising tension between the former campaign opponents. They enjoy a very close relationship, he said. I think the secretary of state is somebody who the president relies on greatly. I think the notion that theres some rift or disagreement is... nothing more than silly Washington games, Gibbs said.