TEL AVIV, Israel - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened his Middle East visit Saturday by announcing job-growth ventures with several Israeli companies and scheduling a surprise detour to Jordan after being criticized for snubbing Palestinians during his trip.

The celebrity governor's first foreign sojourn since taking office was anchored by a speech he was to give Sunday at the site of a planned tolerance museum in Jerusalem.

Saturday, he told a roomful of business executives at a reception that he also will be a salesman for California economic interests.

"Jobs, jobs, jobs," he told members of the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute.

He announced five agreements with Israeli companies to expand or create business in the state to help California's struggling economy. One deal was with SANRAD, a high-tech firm that will move its world headquarters to Alameda, Calif., bringing a projected 300 jobs.

"They see we are coming back and they want to be on board," Schwarzenegger told the group.

Schwarzenegger was introduced by Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, who said California might dwarf Israel in size, but "there is a lot we can do together."

He called Schwarzenegger, who first visited Israel in the 1970s, a "powerful ambassador for the Jewish people and the state of Israel."

Schwarzenegger's staff said he would add a stop in Jordan to his itinerary - a move that came after Arab Americans in California complained that he was ignoring Palestinians on the trip.

Jordan, a moderate Arab nation, has a large Palestinian population. It is closely allied to the United States, has a peace treaty with Israel and enjoys relative stability in the volatile Middle East.

Schwarzenegger was to fly by helicopter to Jordan on Monday for a private lunch with King Abdullah II, a personal friend who has visited his Brentwood home in California.

Margita Thompson, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, said the change of plans was not connected to the complaints. However, the governor and the king were expected to discuss regional problems, including the plight of Palestinians, she said.

While Schwarzenegger is a strong supporter of Israel, "he has friends throughout the world that represent a myriad of interests," Thompson said.

After his lunch in Jordan, Schwarzenegger intends to travel to Ramstein Air Base in Germany to visit U.S. troops wounded in Iraq.

Schwarzenegger usually is mobbed by fans during public appearances. But his arrival at this bustling seaside resort was subdued. There was little publicity about his visit in Israel, and his trip began Saturday evening during the Jewish Sabbath, when most businesses are shuttered.

He pulled into a luxury seaside hotel under heavy security and slipped into a side door while ignoring a few dozen tourists and passers-by attracted by the wailing sirens of his SUV caravan.

Also, his stopover was somewhat overshadowed by a European basketball championship and a Likud party referendum Sunday on withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.

Asked what he thought was the big story in Tel Aviv Saturday, Tomer Tzadok said "of course, the basketball," He went on to say that he hoped Schwarzenegger's visit would make an important statement about security in Israel.

"You see how young people die in the streets," he said. "All the world should make the effort to stop terrorism."

Later in the day, Schwarzenegger was swarmed at a reception for employees of the U.S. Embassy and their families. He shook hands with scores of people.

On Sunday, Schwarzenegger was to attend the groundbreaking for the Simon Wiesenthal Center museum of tolerance and meet with Israeli government leaders, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Saturday, Schwarzenegger called the planned museum "a place of hope."

"Where there is this violence, where all the religions come together in Jerusalem, this will be terrific," he said.

Schwarzenegger has a long-standing relationship with the Los Angeles-based Wiesenthal center, one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations. He has given the group more than $1 million.

The governor's father was a member of the Nazi party, but the actor-turned-politician has always sought to distance himself from that part of his Austrian background.

"Because I come from a country where we have seen a history of prejudice that resulted in terrible atrocities, so I always made it my commitment that I wanted to go around the world to promote tolerance," Schwarzenegger said Saturday.

A probe done by the Wiesenthal center at the request of Schwarzenegger concluded that his father joined the Nazi Party in January 1941 - more than two years after the German annexation of Austria. It found no evidence he was involved in war crimes.