Arizona Sen. John McCain will be in Pittsburgh next week for one stop on a cross-country tour designed to portray the presumptive Republican presidential nominee as a champion of job growth.

Mr. McCain is expected to arrive in Pittsburgh late Tuesday and appear at a Consol Energy facility Wednesday morning. The senator, who yesterday was just completing a trip to Colombia and Mexico, had been in Harrisburg and Bucks County last week.

In addition to Pennsylvania, his jobs tour will reportedly take him to the battleground states of Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia and Wisconsin.

While the McCain visit details were still being finalized, he is expected to stop Wednesday at Consol's soon-to-be-completed headquarters at Southpointe II in Cecil Township.

After his trip to South and Central America, the senator was to spend the Fourth of July with his family at their Arizona home.

Mr. McCain spent the final day of his Latin American trip in Mexico City, where he praised Mexican drug-fighting efforts and hailed a $400 million U.S. aid package for the country's security forces as a key step forward in bilateral relations and in the fight against drug cartels.

Mr. McCain spoke after touring the high-tech command center of a gleaming new federal police facility along with his wife, Cindy, and close political allies Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Earlier yesterday, he met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and said the two had discussed immigration and trade. He also toured a Roman Catholic shrine in the Mexican capital with Republican former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, who was in Mexico on a private business trip.

Both Mr. McCain and his Democratic opponent, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, have already aired television commercials in Pennsylvania markets. Paving the way for Mr. McCain's latest visit to the state, a quasi-independent arm of the Republican National Committee was poised to weigh in on his behalf with a new round of advertisements.

Under federal law, the group airing the ads is not permitted to coordinate its activities with either the RNC or the McCain campaign. Brad Todd, of OnMessage Inc., is directing the ad campaign, first reported on the Politico.com Web site. In an interview, Mr. Todd said the ads will focus on energy issues, with an initial budget of about $3 million for television time in Pennsylvania and three other states.

President Bush fell just short of capturing Pennsylvania's electoral votes in his two campaigns for the White House. Recent surveys have shown an advantage for Mr. Obama, but both campaigns have said they anticipate a competitive race in the state again this year.