WASHINGTON — A Senate committee approved legislation Thursday to allow people to buy prescription drugs from other countries, but the prospects for the bill's ultimate passage remain uncertain.

The Senate Commerce Committee voted 13-8 to add the legislation from U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, to a bill governing the Federal Trade Commission. Snowe said the goal behind the bill is to take advantage of lower, government-limited prices in other countries.

"Americans pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world," Snowe said. "We need to consider this legislation."

Adding the drug legislation to the FTC bill, however, will complicate its path to the Senate floor.

The problem is that the Health Committee has jurisdiction over the drug bill, not the Commerce Committee. The commerce chairman, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said he would block the FTC bill from reaching the Senate floor rather than allow what he called an unrelated drug provision. "It can't succeed," Stevens said.

But supporters argued that they were merely forcing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to schedule a separate floor vote on the drug legislation. Frist, a doctor, has resisted such a vote, citing safety concerns about imported drugs.

"We have been blocked," said U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who supports drug imports. "The only opportunity to unblock it is through leverage."

Snowe's legislation would allow individuals to import drugs from Canadian pharmacies approved by the Food and Drug Administration. U.S. pharmacists and wholesalers also could import drugs from industrialized countries.

A 1 percent fee would be added to imports to cover the cost of hiring regulators.

FDA officials, however, contend they don't have enough staff to catch illegal drugs already entering the country. Other concerns include counterfeits and drugs manufactured to different strengths.

The Health Committee hasn't agreed to a bill on the subject. The chairman, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., threatened to block any legislation emerging from another committee.

But after hearings that began in 1999 and with legislation drafted 18 months ago, supporters of the strategy contend that the subject is too important to ignore any longer.

"We've waited and waited and waited, and at some point we have to find ways to apply leverage to enforce an opportunity to have a debate on the floor of the Senate," Dorgan said.