UPDATE 1-White House says won't sell emergency oil supplies

(adds comments from White House, Energy Department to accept bids to supply oil to SPR)

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) - The Bush administration will resist calls to sell crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help boost available oil supplies in the market and lower prices, the White House said on Monday.

"The president, as the person responsible for the safety and security of the American people, would resist any calls to start selling off Strategic Petroleum Reserve oil and we don't think it would have that big of an impact on prices," White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters.

"It's like the fire extinguisher in case of an emergency," said Perino about the oil reserve.

She said attempts in the past to influence energy prices by using the oil stockpile have not been successful.

Perino also rejected new calls from Congress for the administration to stop adding oil to reserve and divert those deliveries to the market, a move many lawmakers say would ease oil prices that hit a record $126.40 per barrel on Monday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Energy Department will go forward with its plan to accept bids this week from oil companies to supply millions of barrels of additional crude to the stockpile, which now holds about 703 million barrels of emergency oil at four underground storage sites in Texas and Louisiana. (Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by John Picinich)