PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) - With the retail price of gasoline topping $2 a gallon for the first time, Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry on Tuesday chided President Bush for failing to offer hard-hit consumers any help.

The Massachusetts senator's Democratic colleagues plan to pressure the Bush administration to lower gas costs by demanding that up to 60 million barrels of crude oil be released from the nation's emergency stockpile, but Kerry said last week he would not tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

In remarks prepared for delivery to a roundtable discussion on economic opportunity in Portland, Kerry promised to provide relief by suspending filling the SPR, working more effectively with oil-producing nations and enacting simpler and cleaner national fuel strategies.

"Yesterday, gas prices soared to more than $2 a gallon, but this administration still has not done anything to help" Kerry said. "Their inaction is costing working Americans their jobs, their savings and the opportunity to get ahead."

The national average retail gasoline price is forecast to peak in June and remain high throughout the summer, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Higher fuel prices will be felt by motorists planning summer vacations, as well as airline passengers, trucking companies and others.

The White House has been criticized for taking crude oil off the market to fill the SPR even while the national retail price for gasoline soared. Over the past week, it jumped 7.6 cents a gallon to a record high of $2.017 a gallon on Monday.

Kerry said Oregon families had been particularly hard hit, paying $2.25 a gallon and adding $1,006 to their annual bills.

"We know we can do better and think bigger about the challenges we face," he said. "They don't seem to understand that higher costs in gas and health care and lost jobs effect your lives every day."

Bush and his Republican allies, who portray the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as a chronic waffler and a fence-straddling political opportunist, said Kerry had supported higher gas prices at least 11 times in the Senate.

The United States is the world's biggest consumer of oil, using about 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products each day. Imports account for 12 million barrels.

Bush, a former Texas oilman, has adamantly refused to tap the stockpile. He contends the oil should be saved for possible supply disruptions, not to control prices. Kerry has not laid the specific conditions under which he would release oil from the SPR.

The reserve, created by Congress in the mid-1970s after the Arab oil embargo, holds close to 660 million barrels. The administration wants 700 million barrels in it by next year.

After the Portland roundtable, Kerry planned to return to Washington. Along for the ride will be Howard Dean, a onetime rival in the race for the Democratic nomination.

The former Vermont governor, whose high-flying White House bid crash landed in February after he failed to win any of the early contests, helped draw about 4,000 people to a downtown rally for Kerry on Monday night.