The Senate asked the White House Tuesday to consult with Congress before it uses American troops in Bosnia to hunt down accused war criminals.

President Clinton responded by warning Bosnian Serbs that “it would be a grave mistake”’ to seek revenge for the Western arrests of war crimes suspects.

Lawmakers unanimously passed an amendment, sponsored by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to the fiscal 1998 defense appropriations bill that urged Clinton to leave manhunts for war criminals to international police forces or the parties in Bosnia.

Hutchison and other lawmakers were alarmed by the angry reaction of Bosnian Serbs to last week’s raid on suspected war criminals and the sentencing of another Bosnian Serb on war crimes charges. Two explosions and death threats against the 8,000 U.S. troops in Bosnia are said to be the work of irate Bosnian Serbs.