By EDWARD WONG

          Attorney General Janet Reno and the White House today defended
          the forceful tactics that the government used to seize Elián González from the
          home of his Miami relatives on Saturday. But critics continued denouncing the
          dawn raid in which federal agents brandished assault rifles and filled nearby
          streets with tear gas.

          "I tried my level best to make sure we avoided this situation, and if I bent over
          backward, so be it," Attorney General Janet Reno said on NBC's "Today"
          show. "I'm satisfied with the result."

          Ms. Reno's television appearance signaled that while the custody battle
          over the fate of Elián has ended on the streets of Miami, the debate has only
          intensified in the media, where both sides have been addressing the controversial
          raid that unfolded early Saturday morning.

          Ms. Reno said she "had no regrets whatsoever" about ordering armed
          federal agents to storm the home of Elián's relatives and to seize the
          6-year-old boy. Elián was reunited hours later with his father, Juan Miguel
          González, in Washington.

          The White House has taken a similar stance.

          "I think the president is convinced that the operation that took place Saturday
          morning was the right thing to do and was the only alternative remaining to us
          to reunite the boy with his father," Joe Lockhart, the White House spokesman,
          said at a news conference this morning.

          Elián and his father are living temporarily at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland
          and awaiting relocation by the government to an undisclosed location.
          Mr. González flew from Cuba on April 6 to reclaim his son, but has said he would
          stay in the United States until an Atlanta federal appellate court decides whether to
          make the government grant Elián an asylum hearing. A court injunction handed down
          last week also prevents the boy from leaving the country until the judges make a
          decision.

          The raid took place after hours of flurried negotiations in which Miami
          civic leaders tried to work out a plan with Ms. Reno in which Mr.
          González would live with his son and the Miami relatives in a home in
          South Florida while awaiting the outcome of the court case. Both sides
          have acknowledged that they could not agree on where the family would
          live and who would technically have custody of Elián.

          "We were told we would have a deal if we did certain things and we did
          it and it evaporated," Ms. Reno said. "We did what we had to and we
          now need to move forward to give this little boy and his father a chance
          to heal."

          But Aaron Podhurst, a friend of Ms. Reno who acted as a spokesman
          for the Miami relatives during telephone negotiations on Saturday
          morning, said he believed a deal was close at hand even as the raid
          began.

          "I believe a deal was within minutes or an hour away," he said on the
          "Today" show. "I was shocked. I was disappointed. I couldn't believe
          what I was looking at on TV."

          Lawyers for the Miami family have said that they thought negotiations
          were continuing up until the minute they heard commotion outside the
          house. Several Republican Congressmen have appeared on television in
          the last two days criticizing the White House administration's handling of
          the incident. Representative Tom DeLay, a Republican from Texas,
          called on Sunday for Congressional hearings into the raid.

          Texas Governor George W. Bush, the presumed Republican presidential
          candidate, also criticized the White House for its actions.

          But President Clinton's staff lashed back today against such attacks,
          saying the Republicans had been making "wildly inaccurate" statements.
          The White House also defended Ms. Reno's decisions on Saturday.

          "We have a responsibility -- everyone does -- to put out the facts and try
          to separate the facts from the fiction," Mr. Lockhart said. "They did this
          having no other alternative given the intransigent position of the Miami
          relatives."

          Mr. Lockhart also defended Vice-President Al Gore's position on the
          Elián custody battle, saying it was "appropriate and was limited." Mr.
          Gore recently supported a Congressional bill that would give Elián, his
          father and members of that family permanent resident status in the United
          States during court hearings. But Governor Bush attacked Mr. Gore for
          his break from President Clinton's position, saying it was nothing more
          than an attempt to curry favor among Florida's Cuban American voters.

          "I think the president believes that the vice-president has a different point
          on this case," Mr. Lockhart said. He added that Mr. Gore's stand "was
          not anything like some of the overblown rhetoric that we've seen from
          some others."

          In Cuba, Elián's grandmothers expressed their celebratory mood to NBC
          in interviews today with the television network. The two women flew to
          the United States in January in a failed attempt to persuade Elián's Miami
          relatives to hand the boy over.

          "What they did to my son, what they did to us, I'm never going to forget
          it," Mariela Quintana told NBC through an interpreter. "Even after I'm
          dead and buried, I won't forget."

          Ms. Quintana, who was speaking from her hometown of Cardenas, said
          she was "overwhelmed with emotion, pure happiness."

          Both Ms. Quintana and Raquel Rodriguez, the other grandmother, said
          they had spoken with Elián on the telephone since the reunion, and that
          the boy finally sounded happy.

          Elián and his father had been separated since November, when the boy's
          mother, Elizabet Brotons, took him on an ill-fated attempt to reach the
          United States on a smuggling boat. When the vessel capsized, Ms.
          Brotons and 10 other Cubans drowned. But fishermen discovered Elián
          clinging to an inner-tube on Nov. 25 off the Florida coast.

          The boy was given "parole" status by the Immigration and Naturalization
          Service and placed in the custody of his great-uncle, Lázaro González, in
          Miami. Like thousands of Cuban Americans who oppose President Fidel
          Castro's rule, Mr. González has been pushing for Elián to remain in the
          United States. He recently defied government orders to hand over the
          boy, and has asked the 11th Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta
          to make the INS grant the boy an asylum hearing.

          The court is scheduled to hear oral arguments beginning May 11. Mr.
          González and close family members flew to Washington over the
          weekend to talk with lawmakers and federal officials about custody of
          Elián.

          Meanwhile, the streets of Miami remained relatively calm today after a
          weekend of protests. The thousands-strong crowd that had gathered for
          several weeks outside Mr. González's Miami home had dwindled to a
          lone protester by this morning, according to The Associated Press. But
          more than 60 women dressed in black gathered outside the federal
          courthouse in Miami, holding up placards with The Associated Press
          photo that depicts a federal agent brandishing a rifle in front of a
          frightened Elián.

          "As mothers and children," said Sylvia Iriondo, a protest organizer, "we
          are here to condemn the child abuse perpetrated by federal authorities."