WASHINGTON -- Las Vegas has been dropped from a list of cities that the government considers potential high-risk targets for terrorist attacks, federal officials confirmed Tuesday in a move that drew harsh reaction from Nevada leaders.

Las Vegas and 10 other cities previously categorized as "high threat" fell behind 35 areas declared eligible this year for special grants earmarked by the Department of Homeland Security.

The exclusion, which caught Nevada officials by surprise, could jeopardize millions in additional federal funding that the state receives as a result of being considered a potential terrorist target.

The state might be given some "high threat" dollars to continue previously funded emergency responder projects, department spokesman Marc Short said.

State leaders said they were uncertain whether there were any ongoing projects that would qualify.

"I am just disgusted with them," Clark County Sheriff Bill Young said, adding that the problem was typical of the state's fight to win recognition from the Department of Homeland Security.

"It's like yelling into a big, dark, empty hole working with DHS."

Young called upon Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to resign, saying the leader was "impossible" to deal with regarding the needs of a region that plays host to an estimated 50 million tourists each year.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Tuesday night that he had won at least a temporary reprieve. Ensign said Chertoff during a telephone call promised that governments in Clark County, home to 1.7 million people, would get at least $8 million in high-threat funding, the same they got in 2005.

In a news conference earlier in the day, Chertoff defended the scaled-back approach as one that focuses federal grants on those areas most needing to make preparations. Thirty-five metropolitan areas in 29 states plus the District of Columbia will be eligible for $765 million, less than the $855 million that Congress allocated last year.

"Our security is much too important to be determined with funding decisions that are driven by arbitrary formulas, or political formulas, or a desire to give everybody a little bit of something," Chertoff said.

Major metropolises such as New York, Washington and Chicago would continue to qualify for high-threat funding. Smaller cities such as Indianapolis, St. Louis and Cleveland also were on the list.

"It looks to me like Nevada needs a pro football team," said Giles Vanderhoof, state homeland security director, who noted that those cities are home to major stadiums.

Las Vegas received $8 million in 2005 in high-threat funding, and Nevada got nearly $20 million through other homeland security grants.

The next round of grants will be announced in June, Short said.

Ensign said Chertoff reassured him that Las Vegas would be looked at in the future as "one city that deserves special consideration."

"He's going to look at a few cities that really don't fit into the formula," Ensign said.

"It doesn't guarantee we'll get funding, but he'll look at the factors that are more subjective."

In his remarks to reporters, Chertoff said the department considered 3.2 billion calculations to determine which geographic regions would be most susceptible to terrorism.

Analysts looked at consequences, vulnerabilities, threats on a region-wide basis, the number of terrorism-related investigations in a region, population and critical infrastructure, he said.

Short said that based on current threat information, Las Vegas was not ruled a terrorism target. He declined to elaborate.

Young called the reasoning "hogwash."

He noted documented visits to Las Vegas before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by five of the airplane hijackers, revelations in a Detroit terrorism case that terrorists had plotted to strike Las Vegas, and a 2003 New Year's Eve threat alert under which hotels and airlines were asked by the government to turn over customer lists.

"That's totally baloney," Young said.

"This is an ongoing process. This isn't a moment in time."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., questioned possible political motivations.

"I guess Nevada is not red enough for this administration," Reid said referring to the color given to states that vote Republican.

"This is so unbelievable. On New Year's Eve, there were more people in Las Vegas than in New York City."

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, said Chertoff should explain further why Las Vegas does not rank among the top 35 cities.

"Just because current intel doesn't disclose Las Vegas is at risk, we should not let our guard down," Gibbons said.

"God help us if something happens in Las Vegas and this government does not see the writing on the wall as it did in 9/11."

Robert Hadfield, chairman of the Finance Committee for the Nevada Homeland Security Commission, said the state relies upon the targeted urban funding to prepare Southern Nevada.

"It would be like building a Navy and not having the sailors," said Hadfield, who also serves as executive director for the Nevada Association of Counties.

"We need the money to make sure we continue to have the capacity, the development and the training."

In 2005, high-threat grants paid for a host of equipment for the Las Vegas Valley region, including a spectrometer to detect chemical agents, special clothing, chemical response vehicles, handheld computers for emergency personnel to communicate, a bomb robot and a bomb armored vehicle, according to the Clark County Office of Emergency Management.

Capital Bureau reporter Sean Whaley contributed to this story.