Factbox: Key players in high-stakes debt talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is due to resume talks with congressional leaders on Monday in a renewed effort to reach a budget deal and avert a first-ever default by the United States on its financial obligations.

Behind the scenes, Vice President Joe Biden and key White House staff members are working with Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill to fashion the outlines of a possible deficit-reduction deal that would clear the way for Congress to raise the $14.3 trillion cap on U.S. borrowing.

Following are some of those players:

BIDEN - The 36-year veteran of the U.S. Senate has taken on an increasing role as an emissary for the Obama administration on Capitol Hill. He is trusted by Democratic lawmakers but also has a rapport with some key Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. During May and June, Biden led a series of talks with lawmakers that the administration hopes will lay the groundwork for an eventual deal on the deficits and the debt limit.

GENE SPERLING - Sperling, Obama's top economic adviser, is a veteran of the budget battles of the 1990s when he served under President Bill Clinton. Picked in January to head the White House National Economic Council, Sperling's clout within the administration grew when he emerged as a key player in talks with Republicans last December on a tax-cut package. At the time, he was a senior Treasury Department official.

JACK LEW - As White House budget director, Lew has kept a relatively low public profile but is a highly influential adviser with a reputation as a budget hawk. He was chosen to be Obama's budget director a year ago and held the same position during Clinton's second term. He is a former hedge fund manager.

BARRY JACKSON - Jackson, chief of staff to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, is taking the lead role for Republicans. Jackson, who served as an aide in President George W. Bush's White House, was the Republicans' main negotiator in talks that narrowly averted a government shutdown earlier this year. He has been an important player in Republican politics for decades and helped draft the "Contract with America," a set of conservative goals pushed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich during the 1990s.

DAVID KRONE - Krone is chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat. Krone, a lobbyist before going to work for Reid, was the Democrats' lead negotiator in the budget battle earlier this year.

ROHIT KUMAR - A deputy chief of staff to Senate Republican leader McConnell, Kumar is expected to play a secondary role as Barry Jackson takes the lead.

BRUCE REED - Biden's chief of staff is known as a centrist Democrat. Reed was executive director for the Bowles-Simpson panel, which issued a report last year recommending ways to cut the U.S. budget deficit.

BILL DALEY - Daley, the White House chief of staff, is a former commerce secretary whose experience in the private sector as a banker was welcomed by the business community when he joined the Obama administration earlier this year.

ROB NABORS - Nabors worked as a deputy director in the White House budget office in the early part of the Obama administration. He now heads the White House legislative affairs office.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Bill Trott)