ST. GEORGE, Utah — Polygamy is probably here to stay. But child abuse in the polygamous world must be eradicated at all costs.

That was the two-part message Thursday night from top state officials from Arizona and Utah, who spoke to a packed audience of fundamentalist polygamists and curious local residents.

"We do not plan a raid to end polygamy," said Utah Attorney General Mark L. Shurtleff. "I know you're worried about that. We're not going to do it."

The raid last month on a polygamist sect in Eldorado, Texas, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, was not formally on the agenda at what has become an annual town-hall-style meeting between law enforcement officials and local polygamists.

Instead, Eldorado and the fate of the 462 children who were seized by the state in an investigation of possible under-age marriages and child abuse seemed to swallow the agenda whole. Texas officials were invited but were unable to send representatives, a spokesman for Shurtleff said.

That left the audience and the speakers free to analyze, second-guess and sometimes bash outright the course Texas child-welfare officials took.