U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday that creating jobs at home is "at top of" his Latin America agenda when he starts a five-day tour of Brazil, Chile and El Salvador on Saturday.

"In recent weeks, we've seen how turmoil and tragedy around the globe can affect our own prosperity and security, how events abroad often have implications for everything from markets on Wall Street to families' wallets on Main Street," the president wrote in the USA Today newspaper.

He promised to continue to do "everything we can" both to promote stability and democracy in the Middle East and help the people of Japan recover from the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

"But in this increasingly interconnected and fiercely competitive world, our top priority has to be creating and sustaining new jobs and new opportunities for our people," he wrote.

Obama sees growth and job creation as his top priorities as he seeks reelection in 2012. He has sought to double U.S. exports by 2014.

"Lately, we've seen signs that we're moving in the right direction," he wrote, noting that "Our economy added nearly a quarter of a million new private sector jobs last month, and the unemployment rate is at its lowest level in nearly two years. And to keep that progress going, we've got to keep competing for every new job, every new industry and every new market in the 21st century."

"That's one of the reasons I will travel to Latin America this week -- to strengthen our economic relationship with neighbors who are playing a growing role in our economic future," he wrote about his first official visit to South and Central America.

Obama explained that nearly 600 million people live in Latin America, and the region's economy grew by about 6 percent last year and is expected to grow by one-third between 2010 and 2015.

"And as these markets are growing, so is their demand for goods and services -- goods and services that, as president, I want to see made in the United States of America," he wrote.

Obama is leaving for his trip on Friday night with his wife and two daughters.