BETHESDA, Maryland (CNN) -- The Cuban father of Elian Gonzalez appealed to
                  all Americans, urging them to write and call President Clinton and Attorney
                  General Janet Reno to help him get his son back.

                  "Anyone who has any feelings and who truly knows what the love of a parent
                  for a child is, please help me," Juan Miguel Gonzalez said before cameras
                  Thursday outside the suburban Washington home where he has been living for
                  two weeks.

                  Juan Gonzalez said it was very painful for him and for his family to see "my son
                  Elian being used and seeing the abuses that have been committed with regard to
                  him" since Elian arrived in the United States five months ago.

                  "Don't let people put politics before all this. It's simply a father and his child -- I
                  simply want help," said the father, who did not answer any questions.

                  Meanwhile, Attorney General Janet Reno canceled a trip to Montana so she could
                  discuss the case in Washington with her top aides.

                  The White House reaffirmed its support for Reno, who repeatedly has said she
                  wants to reunite father and son in a way that is prompt and orderly. But presidential
                  spokesman Joe Lockhart conceded those twin goals could work against each other.
                  "There's obvious tension between prompt and orderly," he said.

                  Thursday's developments come one day after a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S.
                  Circuit Court of Appeals said Elian must remain in the United States until the same
                  appeals court decides whether he should get an asylum hearing.

                  The order, however, does not prevent the government from reuniting Elian with his
                  father, Juan Gonzalez, in the United States.

                  Although Reno said Wednesday she would abide by the court order, she noted it
                  does not bar her from giving the father physical custody of Elian.

                  In Cuba, where sources tell CNN the government is studying the court's decision,
                  authorities planned a protest to be held Thursday opposite the U.S. diplomatic
                  mission in Havana.

                  Decision doesn't change family impasse

                  Victorious in court, lawyers for Lazaro Gonzalez say Elian's great-uncle is now
                  willing to take the boy anywhere in the country to see his father.

                  "There has to be ice breaking between these two families. They have to look
                  into each other's eyes. This family must be convinced Juan Miguel is not under
                  control of the people around him," attorney Linda Osberg-Braun told CNN.

                  She said the Miami relatives would prefer the meeting take place in Florida
                  "within driving distance."

                  The offer was met with skepticism from Gregory Craig, the U.S. attorney for
                  Juan Gonzalez.

                  "The point of all that is, they still decline to turn over the boy to his father. We
                  could go to Miami and knock on the door and we could come out without the
                  boy. That's unacceptable to us. The central issue is whether this boy is going to
                  be restored to his father," Craig told CNN.

                  Craig said Juan Gonzalez will only agree to a family meeting if the father gets
                  custody, something he already has legally, if not physically, after the government
                  last week revoked the great-uncle's custody of Elian.

                  "Lazaro Gonzalez and those lawyers have no legal or moral right to retain
                  custody, and they have not agreed to transfer custody," the attorney told CNN,
                  adding that it is up to Reno to reunite father and son.

                  Juan Gonzalez, who came to the United States two weeks ago in hopes of a
                  quick return to Cuba with his son, has promised to remain in the United States
                  until the custody suit is settled.

                  As for visiting Miami -- or anywhere else -- to see Elian, his father didn't bring
                  up the subject, according to a Catholic nun who met Thursday with Juan
                  Gonzalez.

                  "All he can do is wait," said Sister Alice Zachmann, one of three nuns who spent
                  90 minutes with him in Bethesda, Maryland, the Washington suburb where
                  Elian's father has been staying.

                  Zachman, director and founder of the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission
                  USA, said she felt the need to visit Juan Gonzalez because "it's a human rights
                  issue in reality." After the meeting, the nun told CNN she was struck by his
                  "extreme sadness that he can't be reunited with his son."

                  What's next?

                  Although the government lost before the three-judge appeals court panel, it could
                  seek to have the ruling lifted by the full court or by a U.S. Supreme Court
                  justice.

                  Or it could wait until a May 11 hearing before the appeals court on the family's
                  asylum request, which had been denied by the Immigration and Naturalization
                  Service.

                  Yet another option would be mediation, an avenue the three judges encouraged
                  the parties to follow. Craig rejected mediation until Juan Gonzalez has custody of
                  Elian. "After the father has custody of the son, anything and everything is
                  possible," he said.

                  Reno and the Justice Department still could forcibly remove the boy from the
                  home. But Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss said federal officials have not
                  given any indication that they are going to do anything in the "next few days or
                  the next few seconds."

                  Miami police also deny Cuba's claim that anti-communist groups planned to use
                  force to prevent federal officials from taking Elian.

                  The Cuban government said Wednesday that men armed with shotguns are
                  stationed permanently at a house close to that of Lazaro Gonzalez.

                  Moss said no armed men have been sighted and that a home near the Gonzalez
                  house was checked for guns. "We checked those rumors, and they're untrue,"
                  he said. Reporters outside the house also said they haven't seen anyone armed.

                  Court critical of government

                  Elian was rescued by two fishermen while clinging to an inner tube off the
                  Florida coast on November 25. He and two others survived, but his mother and
                  10 others drowned when their boat sank while trying to reach the United States
                  from Cuba.

                  Lazaro Gonzalez was awarded temporary custody, and the boy's Miami relatives
                  have cared for him ever since. They insist Elian will be better off living with
                  them and argue that the boy would be psychologically harmed and face
                  persecution if he is returned to Cuba.

                  In their ruling, the appeals court judges had harsh words for the government's
                  handling of Lazaro Gonzalez's effort to win an asylum hearing for Elian.

                  "According to the record, plaintiff -- although a young child -- has expressed a
                  wish that he not be returned to Cuba," the judges wrote.

                  "It appears that never have INS officials attempted to interview plaintiff about his
                  own wishes," the ruling said. "It is not clear that the INS, in finding plaintiff's
                  father to be the only proper representative, considered all of the relevant factors
                  -- particularly the child's separate and independent interests in seeking asylum."

                    Correspondents Mark Potter and Susan Candiotti, Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas,
                    Kate Snow, Martin Savidge, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report,
                                        written by Jim Morris.