WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday that 2007 will be New York's “biggest year ever” for anti-terror help from the government.

Chertoff was pilloried by New York officials last year when his agency cut the city's share of a program for high-threat locations by 40 percent. This year's figures, announced Wednesday, slightly increased New York's take to $134 million.

Combined with a raft of other, smaller anti-terror aid programs, Chertoff counted $257 million this year for the metropolitan area, which he said would only increase further when a series of new transit and port grants are announced in coming weeks. The total will surpass the $261 million received in 2005, the largest amount of anti-terror aid the city received.

But Chertoff also hinted that, as great as the terror threat may be in big cities, dangers also lurk in far-flung corners of the United States.

“I think you'd be surprised at the number of comparatively small places where we have people that we are seriously looking at as potential operatives, and they're not in cities you think you would find them,” he said.

The comments came as the Department of Homeland Security announced aid for states and cities this year for a host of anti-terror programs to fund everything from citizen groups to better radio communication for police officers and firefighters.