Apple's Jobs at tech CEO meeting with Obama - W.House

Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, was joined by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google Inc Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and other members of the Silicon Valley corporate elite for talks with Obama at a venture capitalist's sprawling estate outside San Francisco.

Obama's two-day West Coast visit was aimed at promoting technological innovation to help boost the struggling U.S. economy and reduce stubbornly high unemployment -- considered crucial to his 2012 re-election chances.

The meeting was also part of Obama's efforts to mend fences with the U.S. business community after his Democrats were routed in the November congressional elections, and garner support for a $3.7 trillion budget proposal released this week and already facing stiff Republican resistance.

Jobs, 55, a high-tech visionary who has come to embody Apple's turbulent history and some of the industry's most cutting-edge products, stepped away from the company on medical leave last month. It was the third time in seven years that he has taken time out because of health reasons.

Shares of Apple slipped 1.3 percent in Thursday's trading.

Jobs was not seen by a pool of White House reporters who were kept out of sight of participants at Thursday's working dinner at venture capitalist John Doerr's home in the affluent suburb of Woodside. But a White House official confirmed that all those on the guest list were present.

The National Enquirer on Thursday published pictures that purported to show Jobs arriving at the Stanford Cancer Centre in Palo Alto, California.

A spokeswoman for Stanford Hospital declined to comment.

The company has refused to provide any details on his health, comment on the recent reports or say when he might return from leave.

Jobs had surgery in 2004 for an unusual type of tumour on his pancreas called a neuroendocrine tumour. He had a liver transplant in 2009.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook is running Apple's day-to-day operations while Jobs is on leave.

Analysts noted that Jobs' health problems are widely known by investors, who are not likely to be shocked by Internet reports.