Asked whether Obama should reappoint Ben Bernanke to lead the Federal Reserve when the chairman's term expires next January, Buffett said: "I don't see how you could do better."

STOCKS FOR LONG RUN

In a separate interview, Buffett told Fox Business Network he expects the United States to maintain its "triple-A" credit rating for decades. Berkshire lost its equivalent rating this year.

Buffett also said he plans to keep his Goldman Sachs Group Inc warrants, which now show a paper profit.

Last September, Goldman agreed to sell Berkshire $5 billion of preferred stock carrying a 10 per cent annual dividend, and warrants to buy $5 billion of common stock at $115 per share.

"We'll make a lot of money off Goldman," Buffett said.

Goldman earlier this month repaid $10 billion of federal bailout money taken from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Buffett spoke just before a scheduled lunch with Zhao Danyang, a Hong Kong-based investor who in an auction last June agreed to pay $2.11 million to dine with the billionaire.

An auction for a similar lunch to benefit the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit offering housing, job training, health and child care, and meals for the poor, is being conducted this week on eBay Inc's website.

As of 3:30 p.m. EDT, the top bid was $135,678. The auction ends on Friday.

Berkshire's Class A closed up $1,000 to $86,800 on the New York Stock Exchange.