By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - Democrat John Kerry and President George W. Bush traded shots over skyrocketing gasoline prices on Tuesday, putting the pocketbook issue on the campaign's front-burner months before Americans hit the road for vacation season.
On a fund-raising trip to California, Kerry accused the White House of doing nothing to reduce gas prices and offered a plan to drive down costs by pressuring oil-producing countries to boost supplies and suspending replenishment of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Bush fired back that his Democratic challenger wanted to raise the federal gasoline tax, and launched a new television ad in 18 battleground states accusing Kerry of the "wacky idea" of taxing gas to force people to drive less.
The exchange came as the national average price of regular unleaded gasoline hit a new high of $1.758 per gallon, with predictions that prices will soar even higher in April and May because of tight supplies.
"This administration ... has done nothing to reduce the gas prices," Kerry told an outdoor rally at the University of California, San Diego.
Californians pay more for gas than any other Americans, a point Kerry drove home by stopping his motorcade at a gas station where the posted price was $2.15 for a gallon of regular unleaded.
Bush, on his ninth visit to the battleground state of Wisconsin, responded that "there are some in the other party in Washington who would like to raise gas taxes. I think it would be wrong."
His new black-and-white campaign ad, which also will air on national cable networks, took aim more directly at the Massachusetts senator.
"Some people have wacky ideas, like taxing gasoline more so people drive less. That's John Kerry," said the advertisement.
The Bush campaign added a Kerry gas tax calculator to its Web site, giving driving directions to any destination and adding up the increased costs after an increase in the gas tax.
A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll showed more than two-thirds of Americans believe rising gas costs represent a crisis or a major problem for the United States. Only 31 percent thought it was a minor problem or no problem at all.
BUSH: KERRY VOTED FOR TAX INCREASE
The Bush campaign claimed Kerry voted 11 times for gasoline tax increases and was quoted in a 1994 interview as supporting a 50-cent a gallon increase.
Kerry says he never favored such a move and would not support one now. His campaign said he suggested in 1994 that a gasoline tax could be explored as a way to reduce the budget deficit.
"We need an energy policy that's real and honest for this country," Kerry said in California. "We should be putting pressure on OPEC to raise the supply and not allow those countries to undermine the economies of the world."
Ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meet on Wednesday in Vienna to decide whether to proceed with a planned output reduction of 1 million barrels a day in April. OPEC's biggest producer Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it would support more reduction in output.
Shortly before Kerry spoke, the White House said it was having talks with OPEC members about boosting supplies.
Republicans as well as Democrats have urged the Bush administration to stop filling the SPR -- America's emergency crude oil stockpile -- to keep more oil in the market. The White House has refused, saying the scheduled crude oil deliveries to the stockpile have a "negligible" impact on market prices.
Kerry told thousands of supporters at the rally he would "momentarily" stop filling the SPR until gas prices returned to normal levels. But the Bush campaign said Kerry claimed in 2000 that the SPR would not have any impact on prices.
A Bush campaign spokesman said Kerry was using the reserve "as a political football."
"John Kerry's speech today is an effort to cloud his record of supporting higher gas taxes and opposing a comprehensive energy plan," said spokesman Steve Schmidt.
The Bush attacks on Kerry came one day after Vice President Dick Cheney accused the presumptive Democratic nominee of planning huge income tax hikes. The efforts, part of a broader Republican strategy to paint Kerry as a tax-and-spend liberal, appear to have met some success.
Kerry's poll numbers dropped steadily during the past few weeks, most dramatically in the battleground states where Bush's ads have aired.