Associated Press A priest, nuns and others cross St. Peter's Square at the Vatican yesterday on the last of a two-day meeting between Pope John Paul II and U.S. cardinals at the Vatican. Leaders of the Roman Catholic church of the United States expressed their regret yesterday for failing to prevent the sex abuse scandal that has engulfed the American church.

VATICAN CITY - After an extraordinary meeting sparked by a sex abuse scandal, American Roman Catholic leaders agreed yesterday to make it easier to remove priests guilty of sexually abusing minors - but they stopped short of a zero-tolerance policy to dismiss all abusive priests.

The American church leaders said they would recommend a special process to defrock any priest who has become "notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory sexual abuse of minors." In cases that are "not notorious" they would leave it up to the local bishop to decide if such a priest is a threat to children and should be defrocked.

The statement came at the end of two days of talks between American cardinals and top bishops with Vatican officials aiming to stem the sex abuse scandal engulfing the U.S. church. The church leaders will take their recommendations to a meeting of U.S. bishops in June to draw up a policy on dealing with abusive priests.

But the final statement was less than the blanket order for the dismissal of all abusive priests that some had sought.

The reference to "serial" attacks appeared to contradict a statement earlier yesterday by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who indicated that the American cardinals meeting with Pope John Paul II reached consensus on a "one-strike-you're-out" policy that would dismiss any priest involved in a future sex abuse case.

After a marathon final session that delayed announcement of the final statement by two hours, four church officials appeared at a press briefing. But only one, McCarrick, leads a U.S. archdiocese. Also on the panel were U.S. bishops' head Wilton Gregory; Cardinal James Francis Stafford, an American who is president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity at the Vatican; and Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

"There is a growing consensus certainly among the faithful, among the bishops, that it is too great a risk to assign a priest who has abused a child to another ministry," Gregory told reporters.

On another issue troubling the American church following the wave of scandals, the church leaders declared that "a link between celibacy and pedophilia cannot be scientifically maintained." The group, as expected, reaffirmed priestly celibacy.