Washington ? President Bush said Thursday “two-bit terrorists” who exploded a bomb near the U.S. Embassy in Peru would not stop him from going there as part of a Latin American trip.

Bush said “we might have an idea” who set off the bomb. “They’ve been around before,” he said. He spoke in the Oval Office minutes before leaving the White House for a flight to Mexico, the first leg of a four-day trip that also will take him to Lima, Peru, and El Salvador to promote democracy and reform.

The President did not identify the group who might have set off the bomb about four blocks from the Embassy in the Peruvian capital. But he nodded when a reporter asked if the terrorist group Shining Path, thought to be in eclipse, was on the upsurge.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Shining Path is suspected in the Wednesday night attack.

At least nine people were killed and dozens injured in the blast near an open shopping mall. None was American, the State Department said.

“You bet I am going,” Bush said, indicating he wasn’t worried about security for the trip.

“You know, two-bit terrorists aren’t going to prevent me from doing what we need to do, and that is to promote our friendship in the hemisphere,” he said.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said, “We have talked to security officials on the ground and are satisfied that it will safe for the president to travel there.”

Bush will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit Peru.

Before departing he met privately at Andrews Air Force Base with Milton Green. Green’s wife, Barbara, and her daughter, Kristen Wormsley, were killed when a terrorist set off grenades in a Protestant church in Islamabad, Pakistan, where the Greens worked at the U.S. Embassy. Green had flown back to the United States with the bodies of his wife and stepdaughter.

The first stop on Bush’s trip was to be Monterrey, Mexico, for a two-day U.N. development conference, where Bush was to promote a new aid plan with billions of dollars he plans to distribute to poor countries that demonstrate an intent to fight corruption.

Before crossing into Mexico, Bush visited El Paso to see U.S. operations at the 1,951-mile border. He was announcing that his administration reached a 22-point border agreement with Mexico much like the one Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge signed with Canada in December.

A list of goals, planned technology studies and information-sharing commitments, the U.S.-Mexico agreement to be signed in Monterrey on Friday is designed to tighten border security after the Sept. 11 terror attacks while also preventing border traffic jams and other delays to trade.

In interviews Wednesday, Bush said he has reached no decision whether to consolidate federal agencies that handle border duties, as has been recommended. He stressed, however, that the United States wants to tighten processes so that the border, “la frontera,” cannot be violated by drug traffickers or terrorists.

“Here’s what I want to achieve: a border that recognizes how much traffic there is, normal traffic,” Bush told Spanish-language network Univision, referring to trucks and workers who cross the border and back each day to get to their jobs.

Bush planned to announce minor new initiatives – what Rice called “a lot of small things” – aimed at creating jobs in the poorest areas of Mexico.

Under the new foreign aid initiative disclosed last week, Bush would offer poor countries about $1.7 billion the first year, about $3.3 billion in the second year and $5 billion in the third and subsequent years. If approved by Congress, the money would reward nations that are fighting corruption and implementing political reforms.

Opposition to Bush’s plan awaited him in Monterrey. During a forum of nongovernmental organizations last week, officials denounced the proposal and called for an alternative “that puts people in the center of development.”

Cuban President Fidel Castro will be at the summit, but Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said firmly that Bush has no plans to cross paths with the communist leader.

The president also has not decided whether to resume drug surveillance flights over Peru or seek a base of U.S. counterterrorism operations near Peru’s border with Colombia, Rice said.

The flights were suspended after a Peruvian air force jet, working in coordination with a CIA surveillance plane, shot down a missionary plane on April 20, 2001, killing two people and injuring two other members of the same family.

The White House offered condolences Wednesday night to victims of the incident and their families, and a senior official said the United States will provide “appropriate compensation.”