FACTBOX: Obama relies on small band of trusted advisers

(Reuters) - During his first 100 days in office, U.S. President Barack Obama has been counseled by a small group of loyal advisers who share a bond forged during an efficient and relentless two-year run for the White House.

Obama's tight inner circle blends inside Washington experience and an outsider's perspective out of his hometown of Chicago. It includes a mix of longtime confidantes, political operatives and seasoned congressional pros.

At the White House, the circle has been augmented by high-profile economic advisers like Larry Summers, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and a former treasury secretary, and Paul Volcker, chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board and a former Federal Reserve chairman.

On foreign policy, National Security Council chief James Jones has the president's ear, as does Vice President Joseph Biden.

But along with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, the former Illinois congressman from Chicago who runs the White House, these four other senior aides have the most frequent access and a particularly close personal relationship with Obama:

-- Valerie Jarrett, 52, White House senior adviser, is one of Obama's oldest and closest mentors. Previously unknown in Washington, she was a familiar figure in Chicago who coached Obama in the hardscrabble ways of the city's politics.

An aide to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, she met Obama in the early 1990s when Obama's wife, Michelle, applied for a job in the mayor's office. The three have been close friends ever since.

Jarrett, a lawyer, also was a planning commissioner and chairwoman of the Chicago Transit Authority. She was known in the campaign for her ability to resolve conflicts and for having Obama's complete trust.

Born in Iran, she was educated at a preparatory school, Stanford University and the University of Michigan Law School. Her great-uncle is Vernon Jordan, the well-known Washington lawyer and former confidant of President Bill Clinton.

-- David Axelrod, 54, White House senior adviser, is a well-known Democratic consultant based in Chicago who first met Obama in the early 1990s when Obama was a community organizer.

The former Chicago Tribune political reporter, known as "Ax" by campaign staff, was the political idea man in a presidential run praised for its cohesiveness and efficiency. He kept up the role in the White House, talking frequently to the president and holding weekly meetings to sharpen Obama's message and strategy.

Axelrod is the founder of his own political firm and a close ally of Emanuel who was a consultant to John Edwards on his failed 2004 presidential run. He has talked often of his admiration for Obama and is credited with helping him hone his outsider credentials as a candidate for change.

-- Pete Rouse, 63, White House senior adviser, shuns the spotlight but is a skillful behind-the-scenes operator who signed on as Senate chief of staff after Obama's election as a senator in 2004.

Rouse became intimately familiar with the ways of the Senate while serving as chief of staff to former Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. He was recruited by Obama after Daschle lost his seat in 2004.

The London School of Economics graduate, who came to work in the Senate in 1971, provides the outsider Obama with an insider's perspective on Washington.

-- Robert Gibbs, 38, press secretary, is a longtime Democratic press operative who joined Obama early in his 2004 run for the Senate and has rarely left his side since, becoming one of his closest aides.

The talkative Alabama native relishes combat with the press and frequently played the role of enforcer during the campaign, complaining sharply about stories he disliked. He is the rare White House press secretary who has a close personal and professional relationship with the president.

After Gibbs spent the campaign's first two months in 2007 in the Chicago headquarters as communications director, Obama summoned him on the road to work by his side, where he could provide the candidate frequent advice and instant critiques.

Gibbs worked for a series of Democratic Senate candidates and the party's Senate campaign committee before becoming press secretary to John Kerry's presidential run in 2003. He quit in November 2003 after Kerry fired campaign manager Jim Jordan and joined Obama a few months later.

(Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Patricia Wilson and John O'Callaghan)