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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court ruled today that Congress cannot expose states to federal lawsuits when negotiations break down over gambling on Indian reservations, a $6 billion-a-year industry in 23 states.

The 5-4 decision, a huge victory for states and a setback for the tribes, struck down a primary provision of a 1988 federal law, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

The ruling is extraordinary. It ended for Congress almost 160 years of virtual free rein in making laws affecting American Indians.

It also breathed new life into the Constitution's lith Amendment, which protects states from being sued in federal courts against their will.

The amendment long has been a rallying point for those, on and off the federal bench, who advocate states'rights.

Writing for the court, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said the Constitution does not give Congress the power to authorize federal lawsuits to be filed by Indian tribes against unwilling states and state officials.

Rehnquist said the 11th Amendment restricts judicial power and that the constitutional powers given to Congress "cannot be used to circumvent the constitutional limitations placed upon federal jurisdiction."

The nation's highest court ruled in 1987 that states cannot ban gambling on Indian reservations within their borders if the same gambling is allowed elsewhere in those states.

Congress responded the next year by enacting the law that requires tribes to negotiate with the respective states before starting some types of on reservation gambling, including casinos.

The law requires states to nego- tiate in good faith, and says a tribe may sue a state in federal court if it fails to do so.

The Seminole tribe sued Florida after Gov. Lawton Chiles refused to agree to the tribe's concept of what gambling to include on one of its five Florida reservations.

The controversy acted on today also involved the Poarch Creek tribes.