The Senate Intelligence Committee approved legislation Thursday permitting warrantless surveillance of international calls that may involve U.S. citizens, while granting a special court authority to review several aspects of such spying.

The bill, approved 13-2, also would give retroactive legal immunity to private sector companies alleged to have participated in the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program. The shield would cover actions that took place after Sept. 11, 2001, up to when the program was placed this year under the authority of the court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA (PL 95-511).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has targeted mid-November for floor debate on legislation overhauling FISA, according to his spokesman, Jim Manley. But the bill — worked out between leaders of the Intelligence Committee and the White House — already faces hurdles.

Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., who is running for his party’s presidential nomination, said he has placed a hold on the legislation, and leaders of the Judiciary Committee have expressed skepticism about some of the provisions. Judiciary shares jurisdiction over the bill with the Intelligence panel.

The two votes against the bill in the Intelligence Committee were cast by Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Several details of the markup were not disclosed by the panel. But Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., and Vice Chairman Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo., who wrote the bill, provided some, including that the bill would sunset after six years.

Rockefeller said the goal of the bill is to protect the civil liberties and privacy of U.S. citizens while also ensuring national security.

“It does not do any of those things absolutely perfectly, but it does them the best it can do,” he said.

The FISA court would have to approve several aspects of warrantless surveillance of targets reasonably believed to be outside the United States, such as the targeting procedures used, according to Rockefeller and Bond.

The legislation had the support of the White House. Even after the adoption of amendments that the director of National Intelligence opposed, the senators said they were confident it could keep the Bush administration’s support with some technical modifications.

The bill could encounter resistance from the Judiciary Committee, which expects a referral, although no markup as been scheduled there yet.

Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania have said they would resist providing retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies without viewing legal documents related to the NSA program. Only the Senate Intelligence panel has been granted access to those documents.

Leahy said early Thursday he feared that the White House was putting pressure on the Intelligence panel and that the committee “could cave on this.” He said it appeared that the administration was lobbying so intensely “because they know that it was illegal conduct and that there is no saving grace for the president to say, ‘Well, I was acting with authority.’ ”

Rockefeller, though, said, “The companies have made a very strong case.” He said that “if not for these companies, there is no way we could conduct surveillance.”

Reid and Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., said they, too, wanted to see the documents. “I have to see what papers they’ve submitted,” Reid said. “There may be justification for it. At this point, I don’t know what that would be.”

Even if both committees approve the bill, it must overcome Dodd’s efforts to block floor consideration.

“I said that I would do everything I could to stop this bill from passing, and I have,” Dodd said in a statement.

The House version of the bill (HR 3773) collapsed Wednesday when Republicans used a procedural tactic Democratic leaders could not overcome. House leaders vowed to bring it back next week.

Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., said the bill would be in the exact same form. He disputed reports that it was pulled because Democrats lacked the votes to pass it.

“We think we have the votes,” Hoyer said, adding he has spoken with Reid, “and, frankly, I think we are in agreement on how we’re going to proceed.”

The House bill does not provide retroactive legal immunity. It would allow the administration to apply for so-called “basket” warrants from the FISA court as a way of monitoring multiple targets at once, then would add layers of court and congressional oversight in an attempt to ensure that the civil liberties of U.S. citizens were not violated.

Republicans said the bill would place too many limitations on the intelligence community’s attempts to monitor terrorist communications. The administration also opposes the House version, and President Bush has threatened to veto it.

Kathleen Hunter and Bart Jansen contributed to this story.