* Record $16 bln 30Y bond sale concludes Nov refunding

* Govt starts fiscal 2010 with a record budget gap

* Weekly jobless claims fall more than expected (Updates prices, adds fresh quote, changes byline)

By Ellis Mnyandu

NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices rose on Thursday as a record $16 billion 30-year bond auction rounded off a successful week for a massive refunding program that signaled no let up in appetite for U.S. government debt.

Although the 30-year bond auction drew a response just short of the strong response seen with Monday's 3-year note auction and Tuesday's sale of benchmark 10-year notes, analysts said investors were relieved that the Treasury auctions went relatively smoothly.

The auctions were part of this week's $81 billion federal debt refunding. "I think there's just relief that it's out of the way," said Carl Lantz, interest rate strategist at Credit Suisse in New York. "With that out of the way I think we see the market recover a bit and we flatten out."

Weakness in U.S. stocks spurred some safe-haven buying and sentiment on bonds also got a boost from economic data that supported the view of a slow U.S. economic recovery and bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve will stick to its near-zero rate policy.

But with the strength of the economic recovery still somewhat uncertain, investors have shown a willingness to put money more in the shorter-dated part of the yield curve.