The billionaire investor thinks the solution to the Enron Corp. mess isn't new laws but rather shareholders demanding better disclosure from executives.

"The important thing is the figures," Buffett said at a Securities and Exchange Commission roundtable discussion in Manhattan yesterday.

While companies provide reams of required financial data for investors, he said some companies provide more "fluff" than hard-and-fast information.

Buffett appeared with New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso, along with academics, lawyers and business executives.

The panel agreed the best way to prevent another Enron-type debacle is to beef up the SEC and improve corporate accounting and disclosure. The group expressed skepticism about the reforms proposed by Congress in the wake of Enron's collapse and stressed the need for companies to provide better quarterly and annual reports.

Buffett said he's read footnoted reports for financial companies with large derivatives holdings but found it impossible to tell how the companies would hold up under financial stress.

"It's a very tough problem," he said.

Buffett advised shareholders to put pressure on corporate executives to come up with better reports. He said CEOs need to view themselves as the company's "chief disclosure officer" and tell investors everything they need to know about the company's performance and accounting.

Audit committees need to ask tough questions of outside auditors and put their answers on record, he said.

"You have to be a little adversarial," Buffett suggested, saying auditors "are not going to volunteer the shady stuff," unless they are forced to do so.

A get-tough approach would require some audit committees to change their approach, Buffett conceded, saying many spend time at meetings listening to "show-and-tell" presentations and don't have time "to really get to the guts of whether the company is playing with the numbers."

Mandatory rotation of auditors, which would be required under some bills introduced in Congress, would be a mistake, Buffett said.

Others at the roundtable agreed, saying investors could suffer if the auditors rotate frequently and aren't up to speed with the company's accounting.

Investors need to know if a company's accounting is conservative or aggressive, however, and that should be disclosed in annual and quarterly reports, said John White, a partner at the law firm of Cravath Swaine & Moore.

NYSE Chairman Grasso also warned Congress not to be too hasty to revise U.S. accounting, saying that despite "the recent disclosures and failures, it is still the finest system in the world."