A group of Utah business and political leaders on Thursday said the state stands to lose 600 potential jobs if the U.S. Air Force selects a foreign-based firm instead of Boeing Co. to build a new aerial tanker.

But a spokesman for Northrop Grumman Corp., which is connected with European multinational company EADS in the bidding process, said that if EADS is selected, Utah would gain 220 jobs.

In a telephone news conference Thursday morning, the Utah leaders said that outsourcing of the $40 billion tanker manufacturing contract to EADS rather than Boeing will jeopardize 44,000 potential jobs in the United States. If Boeing loses its bid, Utah could lose 600 jobs and $22 million from the state's economy, they said.

The Air Force is expected to award the contract early in 2008.

The group included Lane Beattie, president and chief executive officer of the Salt Lake Chamber; Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon; Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden; Lorena Riffo-Jensen, chairwoman of the board of the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and Ron Kusina, executive director of the Weber Economic Development Corp.

Beattie said selecting EADS, the parent company of European jet-maker and Boeing rival Airbus, would harm U.S. national security and take away jobs from Americans.

"Basically, at stake in this contract is the potential for the United States and specifically for Utah to gain thousands of crucially needed manufacturing jobs, not to mention the overall economic impact to our local communities and our state," he said.

In addition to Boeing, that company's suppliers and vendors that would be affected in Utah are Alliant Techsystems, Edo Corp., GSC Foundries, Metric Precision Machine, Moog Inc. and Parker Hannifin, he said.

"Put together, all of these suppliers will add in the successful manufacture of a critical piece of military equipment. It is something our military will depend on, and we need to ensure that that job is done by a firm both the Department of Defense and the men and women in uniform can trust," Beattie said.

Boeing has 739 employees and 236 suppliers and vendors in Utah, he said. He acknowledged that those supplier companies could become subcontractors through the EADS bid. That fact was confirmed by a spokesman for Northrop Grumman, which is partnering with EADS on its bid.

Northrop Grumman, which has 1,228 Utah employees, contends that its KC-30 tanker would be "a U.S. product" that would be assembled in Alabama using European components and the Airbus A330 airframe. The project would employ 25,000 U.S. workers at 230 companies in 49 states.