UPDATE 1-Bush urges Congress lift ban on offshore drilling

WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday called on the U.S. Congress to end a decades-old ban on offshore oil drilling.

With gasoline prices at record levels above $4 per gallon, Bush also said Congress should end the ban on oil shale drilling and open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling.

In calling for Congress to lift a ban on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf that has been in place since 1981, Bush said congressional restrictions had become "outdated and counterproductive."

Bush also emphasized the need for the United States to expand its refining capacity and said he was proposing measures to speed federal approval of refinery building permits.

(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Chris Baltimore; Editing by Bill Trott)