WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will visit California to tour Sacramento's levees and assess the need for federal help, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday after meeting with the secretary.

Schwarzenegger said Chertoff made the commitment during a meeting in which the governor pressed him to support a federal disaster declaration for the fragile levee system. Schwarzenegger on Friday declared a state of emergency for the river and delta levees to try to get quick funding to repair them.

"He said that he will help, that he will look into it," Schwarzenegger said in an interview with The Associated Press. "He has committed to come to California to take a tour with me."

"It's always easier if you see it," said Schwarzenegger, who toured the levees himself by helicopter several days before issuing the disaster declaration.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin delta covers 738,000 acres and is the source of drinking water for 22 million Californians and of irrigation for Central Valley farmers. About 1,600 miles of federal-state levees protect the delta, much of which is below sea level, and the rivers that flow in and out of it.

Largely because of weaknesses in the levees -- some built more than 100 years ago -- there are fears that an earthquake or flood could cause catastrophic flooding.

Schwarzenegger's state emergency declaration identified 24 critically eroded sites that are expected to take $75 million to $100 million to repair. In a letter Schwarzenegger gave Monday to President Bush he said the federal share was expected to exceed $56 million.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said there may be legal barriers to the federal government granting Schwarzenegger's request for a disaster declaration, "but we're going to take a very careful look at the specific request." Knocke declined to describe the potential legal barriers, but the federal law under which the president can declare disaster areas in states is normally used after -- not before -- disaster strikes.

In the case of Hurricane Katrina, though, Bush issued a disaster declaration two days before the storm hit Louisiana.

Schwarzenegger and Chertoff also discussed the need to ensure that the federal government would be prepared to respond to a disaster in the nation's most populous state.

In response to requests from Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, Chertoff has said the federal government has no specific plan to respond to a catastrophic earthquake in California. Such a scenario would be covered by the government's National Response Plan, Chertoff said earlier this month in a letter to Boxer. Beyond that states are responsible for developing their own plans. Chertoff told Boxer that Federal Emergency Management Agency officials are reviewing California's plan.

Schwarzenegger met with Chertoff for 20 to 25 minutes before a meeting with President Bush and fellow governors at the White House. The governors are in town for the annual National Governors Association conference.

Over lunch they met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to press him on the administration's proposal to fund the state-controlled National Guard beneath levels authorized by Congress. Schwarzenegger and the other governors are united in opposing the plan, and Schwarzenegger sent a letter to California's congressional delegation Monday saying it could hurt the state's emergency readiness.

Schwarzenegger renews his push for levee funding Tuesday with meetings on Capitol Hill with Feinstein and Boxer and key members of House and Senate spending committees.

The governor's sixth visit to Washington since his 2003 election also includes fundraising for his re-election campaign. He'll collect money at a lunch Tuesday with Ted Leonsis, vice chairman of America Online, Inc., according to his campaign.