Rumors of a White House reshuffle were gently rebuffed by White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tusday.

The Washington rumor mill went into overdrive this week when Chief of Staff Bill Daley passed some of his duties on to a veteran subordinate.

When Daley, who took the post in January, informed his staff of his plan to hand some of his White House organization duties to Pete Rouse - a longtime aide to President Barack Obama - tongues wagged.

According to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal Daley is close to big business and seen as a political centrist, and it's believed that President Obama's new populist tone has chaffed with him.

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'I think a little bit more is being made of this than in fact is happening,' White House spokesman Carney told APF on Tuesday.

'Bill Daley has asked - Pete Rouse, counsel to the president, to help streamline and make more efficient and effective internal communications in the White House and to help with some of the day-to-day management of the place. Bill Daley, as the chief of staff, obviously retains all his authority and his responsibility.'

'It is less about transferring duties than it is about adding responsibilities without subtracting them for anyone else.'

Daley, a former JP Morgan executive who previously served under president Bill Clinton as commerce secretary, was appointed by Obama after the 2010 mid-term elections.

In January his appointment was read as a sign that Obama wanted to repair his ties to big business.

But since the president is now campaigning to have the richest Americans pay more taxes to create more jobs - whilst the public watches Wall Street executives rack up record breaking profits and bonuses each year - relationship between the two men may have cooled.