* Jarrett says relations with business are strong
* Chamber of Commerce upset with White House focus
By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A senior aide to President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the White House was eager to listen to viewpoints from U.S. companies and played down differences with a powerful business lobby group.
Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama whose portfolio concentrates largely on business-related matters, said relations between the White House and the corporate world were strong -- even if the U.S. Chamber of Commerce disagrees.
"I think our relationship with the business community ... is very strong," Jarrett told Reuters in an interview. "We have a multidimensional outreach approach."
She cited a series of meetings between Obama, herself, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other top administration officials with corporate chief executives as evidence that reports of divisions were false.
The Chamber of Commerce, which says it represents three million large and small businesses, opposes the Obama administration's push for climate legislation and has not been supportive of efforts to revamp financial regulation.
Jarrett said she found "incongruent" with the group's support for government bailouts of banks and auto companies.
Bruce Josten, the chamber's executive vice president for government affairs, told the Reuters Washington Summit the White House's focus on big corporate CEOs had come at the expense of smaller businesses.
"The White House very publicly says, interestingly to me, that they think they are getting important feedback from corporate CEOs ... who represent the smallest portion of the entire nation's business community," he said.
"I am sure they get good feedback from them ... but I don't think it's entirely representative of the nation's business community."
Jarrett said the White House wanted to work with the Chamber but had a broader view of who speaks for the business community.
"What I've been told is traditionally the chamber is the dominant voice for business in Washington and our approach is to not let there be a dominant voice, but rather make sure that we're listening to all different perspectives," she said.
"This is not a war. This is not a divide. This is just a change in strategy, which I think may take them some getting used to."