WASHINGTON -- The federal government has planned to ask the nation's airlines, travel agents and reservation Web sites to provide passenger information to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in order to prevent a terrorist attack, a TSA spokesman said Monday.

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In a noontime telephone news conference, Mark Hatfield, the TSA's director of communications, said the agency would begin testing and eventually phase in the next generation of the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II.

According to Hatfield, the program will use passenger data to verify the identity of airline reservation purchasers. One of CAPPS II's goals is "to determine the likelihood the person who's buying a ticket is who they say they are," Hatfield said.

Following that validation, the TSA will provide a color-coded score for each passenger. A traveler with a green grade would be allowed to board the plane, one with a yellow evaluation would be flagged for "secondary screening," and a passenger given a red indicator would not be allowed to fly, Hatfield said.

The system would check verified names with those on the government's watch lists to flag "anyone who is a threat to aviation," Hatfield said.

In response to claims that CAPPS II would infringe consumers' privacy rights, Hatfield said the program's "no. 1 priority is the protection of privacy." He said that before the system is "rolled out" the agency would provide specific privacy guidelines for the new program.

Hatfield said the TSA would ask ticket sellers for a person's name, address and credit information and would not inquire about a traveler's medical history, race, religion and origin.