Commenting on the spate of suicides by Chinese workers at the Foxconn factory for the first time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a recent statement that the factory complex “is not a sweatshop,” as the reports claim. Jobs’ comments came during his address at the D8 conference - an annual gathering of top technology executives.

The Foxconn factory, which is connected with the manufacturing of a number of devices for the leading companies, happens to be the global contract manufacturer which assembles the Apple iPhones and iPads in China.

About the recent worker suicide cases that have cropped up at Foxconn’s premises in southern China, critics are of the opinion that stressful working conditions and the factory-city model of the facility have seemingly taken their toll on the lives of the workers.

The remarks by Jobs come in the wake of the threatening consequences that the controversy surrounding the Foxconn factory’s deplorable worker conditions might have on the apparent success of Apple’s April-launched iPad tablet computer – the device has already sold over two million units ever since its April 3 debut.

Calling the situation at Foxconn a “difficult” one, Jobs said: “We're all over this. It's really troubling… We're trying to understand right now, before we go in and say we know the solution.”