Mayor Bloomberg’s trip to Mexico today, his fourth visit to a foreign country in as many months, is adding fuel to the speculation that he is attempting to shore up his international credentials and raise his national profile in preparation for a White House run.

Earlier this year, Mr. Bloomberg visited England, Ireland, and Israel, and he has shown up in the presidential swing states of Ohio and Florida. He made a high-profile visit to Los Angeles in September. Last week, he appeared in Jersey City flanked by mayors from across New Jersey and police officers to announce an advertising blitz for his national campaign targeting illegal guns.

The unveiling of his ambitious environmental plan for the city on Sunday received support from Prime Minister Blair and Governor Schwarzenegger, who appeared in video messages shown during Mr. Bloomberg’s speech at the American Museum of Natural History.

Officials said today’s trip was planned to allow Mr. Bloomberg to examine Mexico’s program that pays impoverished families for meeting certain health, education, and employment goals. Mr. Bloomberg has reached into his own pocket to help pay for a pilot program starting in New York this fall that is modeled on one in Mexico. He has given between $2 million and $10 million to the program; his aides would not specify the exact amount.

In addition to drawing attention to the anti-poverty program, the visit also is expected to introduce Mr. Bloomberg to Latino voters who are likely to follow his trip in the Spanish-language press. As with all of Mr. Bloomberg’s recent jaunts abroad and to key swing states, the visit raises questions about the mayor’s presidential aspirations.

A political consultant, Hank Sheinkopf, said that while it’s not unusual for a mayor to travel, it is unusual for that many trips in such a short period of time.

“Certainly it would be a way for this mayor to show he has experience abroad and is developing relationships with other nations,” he said. In terms of reaching out to Mexican Americans who may not be familiar with the mayor, “this is one way to get them to pay attention,” he said.

The mayor is coy about plans to mount a presidential campaign, but cracks light jokes about the speculation and appears to enjoy the attention.

During a lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel on Thursday with some of the city’s biggest political donors, Mr. Bloomberg won high praise for his leadership from a former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, and a former Democratic congressman of Tennessee, Harold Ford. He joked with Mr. Gingrich, who also is considered a potential presidential candidate, about the speculation surrounding them.

“Don’t you just hate it Newt, when people are floating rumors about running for president?” he said. “It’s terrible.”

The Daily News reported in a column yesterday that a top aide to the mayor, Kevin Sheekey, has met at least twice with the chairman of the state Independence Party, Frank MacKay, at a Manhattan restaurant. Mr. Bloomberg’s aides declined to comment, but did not deny that the meetings had occurred. Mr. MacKay would not confirm or deny the meetings, according to the column.

If Mr. Bloomberg entered the presidential race, political observers speculate he would do so as an independent candidate.

A professor of public administration at Columbia University, Steven Cohen, cautioned against reading too much into Mr. Bloomberg’s travel schedule.

“First, there’s no question that the mayor of New York City is an international figure and this mayor has ambitions to be a national and world leader, but that’s a long way from saying he is going to run for president,” he said.

It helps the city and Mr. Bloomberg’s political cachet to keep rumors of a possible presidential bid alive, Mr. Cohen said. He said the odds are against Mr. Bloomberg running, because he thinks the Democratic and Republican campaigns will yield centrist candidates, one of whom Mr. Bloomberg would be willing to endorse.

“I don’t think he’s going to run for symbolic reasons,” he said. “This is not a man who runs to make a point. This is a kind of person who calculates advantage and disadvantage and only runs to win.”