By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          HAVANA (AP) -- Fidel Castro played benevolent grandfather to a
          timid 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez as state television on Tuesday broadcast
          for the first time images of the leader with the little castaway whose fate
          divided Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits.

          The surprise airing of the images recorded in July, just weeks after Elian
          was repatriated following a seven-month custody battle, came on the eve
          of the child's 7th birthday -- expected to include a celebration attended
          by Castro himself.

          It was unclear why the government decided to broadcast the images after
          months of making a conscious effort to keep the boy out of the public
          eye. Castro had promised that Cuba would avoid a media circus upon
          Elian's return to Cuba and was conspicuously absent at the boy's airport
          homecoming on June 28.

          Castro's detractors had predicted that after Elian returned, the Cuban
          leader would parade the child around like a poster boy for his political
          ideology.

          Elian survived a boat sinking that killed his mother and 10 other
          would-be emigrants and was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in
          November 1999. He became the subject of an international custody
          dispute between his father in Cuba and their relatives in the United
          States, who fought unsuccessfully to keep him.

          In the images shown on Cuban television Tuesday evening, Castro took
          Elian's hand to congratulate him for completing his first-grade studies.
          Castro gave Elian ``The Golden Age,'' a children's book by the late
          independence hero Jose Marti.

          Castro leaned down and talked to Elian softly, telling him he was a friend
          of his father and his grandparents. At one point, he kissed him on the
          head.

          Elian, meanwhile, looked up speechless at the bearded man in the olive
          green uniform as his father and other relatives looked on and smiled.

          ``For when you are in the fourth or fifth grade and can enjoy one of the
          most tender works of Marti,'' the Cuban leader said, reading his
          dedication to Elian. It was signed, ``Affectionately, Fidel Castro.''

          Some images of the day marking Elian's completion of the first grade
          were broadcast on state television in July, along with Castro's reading of
          the book's dedication off-camera. It was clear from that broadcast 4 1/2
          months ago that Castro had met with Elian that day, but the two were not
          shown together.

          Elian received his first-grade diploma in mid-July after what the Cuban
          government said was a special effort by teachers to help him recover the
          time lost during his tumultuous stay in the United States.

          Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the American minister who played a central
          role in the fight by Elian's father for the child's repatriation, was to attend
          the boy's birthday party Wednesday in his hometown of Cardenas, a
          two-hour drive east of Havana.

          Campbell has said she would bring Elian a new camera and film as a gift.
          It will be the first time the former head of the National Council of
          Churches has met with Elian, his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and the
          boy's grandparents since the child returned to the island on June 28.