President Barack Obama urged businesses to bring jobs back from overseas, reported Dow Jones Newswires.

"These companies are choosing to invest in the one country with the most productive workers, best universities, and most creative and innovative entrepreneurs in the world: the United States of America," Obama said before labour and business leaders from companies such as Ford Motor, engine-maker Rolls-Royce Holdings and Intel Corp.

Obama said his fiscal 2013 budget would include a request for US$12 million in new resources to increase a federal programme that promotes business investment in the US He said he would also propose new tax measures to help benefit companies that bring jobs back from overseas, and eliminate tax breaks for companies outsourcing jobs.

Obama met with the labour and business leaders as part of what the White House called an "Insourcing American Jobs" forum.
President Obama has tried to brand himself as a middle-class crusader, and the White House has said the insourcing forum is a chance to highlight how the president is fighting for jobs.