NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications said Friday it does not and will not provide any government agency unfettered access to customer records, responding to a report that it was one of three U.S. telephone companies that had given access to data on millions of consumers.

USA Today reported on Thursday that the National Security Agency was secretly amassing phone records from the country's three biggest phone companies to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist plots.

"Verizon does not, and will not, provide any government agency unfettered access to our customer records or provide information to the government under circumstances that would allow a fishing expedition," the company said in a statement.

The telecommunications company said it could not comment on a "highly classified" National Security Agency program that President Bush has referred to, nor could it confirm or deny whether it has had any relationship to the program.

Bush on Thursday denied the government was "trolling through" Americans' personal lives, saying intelligence activities he had authorized were lawful and the government was not eavesdropping on domestic calls without court approval.

According to the report,AT&T Inc (Research) and BellSouth Corp (Research) also gave the government access to customer records.

Verizon (Research) said there had been "factual errors in press coverage about the way Verizon handles customer information in general."

It said it would provide customer information to a government agency "only where authorized by law for appropriately-defined and focused purposes."

The company said it hoped the Administration and Congress could agree on an appropriate process to examine the issues that have been raised and said it was prepared to participate in such a process.

Verizon, which bought long-distance operator MCI in January, said it was ensuring its own policies were also enforced at MCI.

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