BY JUAN O. TAMAYO, JAY WEAVER AND ANDRES VIGLUCCI

 Elian Gonzalez's father in Cuba said Thursday he will apply for a U.S. visa, a move
 that raised the ante in the battle over the boy's custody, dropped a new obstacle into
 negotiations between his Miami relatives and immigration authorities, and could force
 an unprepared government to act quickly.

 Juan Miguel Gonzalez's promised application comes with a big caveat: He will come
 to the United States only if U.S. authorities guarantee he will get physical custody of
 Elian while the boy's Miami relatives pursue an expedited federal court appeal over
 his fate.

 But as the negotiations in Miami adjourned until Monday with no resolution at hand,
 the government seemed to be in no position to make that guarantee. In the meantime,
 immigration authorities said they would put off until Tuesday a threat to revoke Elian's
 permission to remain in the country.

 One significant stumbling block in the talks is a government demand that Elian's
 great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, who is taking care of the boy, promise to turn him
 over if a change of circumstances, including his father's coming to the United States,
 makes the custody arrangement no longer ``appropriate.''

 The clause suddenly took on unexpected significance when, in the middle of talks
 Wednesday night, Cuban President Fidel Castro proposed that the father, his new
 family and a retinue of 27 others go to Washington, D.C., to live with Elian until the
 appeal is concluded.

 Agreeing to the clause would obligate the Miami relatives to meet a government
 demand to surrender Elian should the father come to the United States -- even if
 the appeal is not concluded. Previously, the father had insisted he would come
 only to pick up his son for the trip back to Cuba.

 Neither side would discuss details of the negotiations. But the INS said it would
 have little choice but to attempt to move Elian to the father's custody if Juan
 Miguel Gonzalez arrives in the country. INS officials, however, said there was no
 agreement with the father, who had not applied for the visas by Thursday night.

 ``If the father comes to the United States, agreeing to stay for a period of time,
 and asks us to transfer Elian to his care, we would be hard-pressed not to honor
 that request,'' said Maria Cardona, spokeswoman for the INS in Washington.

 COMPLEX PROBLEM

 Compounding the problem, sources close to the negotiations said, was
 disagreement that arose even before Castro's announcement. Lazaro Gonzalez
 has refused to agree to a key demand that he sign a pledge to turn over the boy if
 he loses his appeal in federal court, a government gambit designed to prevent the
 family from further prolonging the case.

 Gonzalez arrived for talks Wednesday with a signed counterproposal in which he
 promised to surrender Elian upon losing the appeal, but only if an independent
 psychological evaluation indicated it was in the boy's best interest.

 Government negotiators were encouraged by Gonzalez's apparent willingness to
 deliver Elian, but have been unable to agree with him and his lawyers over
 precisely how to carry that out.

 Without an agreement, however, Elian's father may be unwilling to come.

 THE APPLICATIONS

 The father's attorney, Washington lawyer Gregory Craig, said his client would
 apply for visas for himself, his new wife and baby and a young cousin of Elian's.
 Later would come applications for Elian's classmates, doctors and others. Craig
 tried to apply for them at the State Department in Washington, but was told the
 father had to apply at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana.

 ``Can anyone doubt that the time is long overdue for this boy to be reunited with
 his father? Craig said at a news conference, complaining that the Miami
 negotiations had ``failed and that the Miami relatives were using the boy as a tool
 in a propaganda battle against Castro.

 Even Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, who on Wednesday warned of possible
 violence if Elian is removed from the house, told NBC's Matt Lauer Thursday that
 he would not oppose allowing the boy to stay with his father while court appeals
 go on. He reiterated, however, that he believes both should stay in the U.S.

 ``I don't think anyone has any objections to that,'' he said. ``The boy and the
 father belong together, but they belong together, we believe, in a land of freedom.''

 LEGAL OBLIGATIONS

 If Elian's father does come to the United States, INS officials and legal experts
 said, the agency would be legally obligated to promptly turn the boy over to him,
 and could do so with no further need for court proceedings. INS would first have to
 revoke the temporary parole that allows Elian to stay in the country legally, said
 David Martin, law professor at the University of Virginia and a former INS general
 counsel.

 ``In principle, at least, it's very simple,'' said Bernard Perlmutter, professor of
 family law at the University of Miami. ``That should seal it.''

 But, said University of Miami immigration law professor David Abraham, ``the
 problem is the family still has Elian in their home in Miami.''

 And absent an agreement with the relatives, the INS has yet to figure out how to
 wrest custody of the child without provoking violence or civil unrest by
 demonstrators who are surrounding the family's Little Havana home -- an
 apparently unprecedented scenario.

 ``I don't know of any situation in the INS' history where you can have an
 adversarial confrontation with thousands of people forming a human chain around
 the house, Martin said.

 PROTESTS ON HOLD

 Exile leaders put protest plans on hold Thursday while the negotiations continued.
 Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the Democracy Movement, has been teaching
 the crowd of exiles gathered outside the Gonzalez home to form a human chain
 around the house. But he said they would allow Juan Miguel Gonzalez to pass
 because he's ``family.''

 Another potential obstacle to the father's coming: Once he is here, he could be
 subject to subpoenas for testimony in a custody petition filed by the Miami
 relatives in Miami-Dade Family Court. The legal experts and U.S. Attorney
 General Janet Reno say her authority pre-empts the state court's, but his arrival
 could reactivate the case, which is on hold pending the federal appeal.

 Also apparently on hold was Castro's surprising offer to send 27 other people
 along with Juan Miguel Gonzalez and his family to create a mini-Cuba in
 Washington so that Elian can feel at home until the courts rule.

 ``They are not pushing Castro's idea for a `Havana on the Potomac,' and we're
 glad, said one U.S. official involved in the contacts. ``We don't want this turning
 into an even worse circus.

 READY TO MOVE

 State Department spokesman James Foley said the department has long been
 ready to swiftly issue visas to the father and his new family ``because it would be
 helpful to the successful resolution of this case.''

 But Foley appeared less enthusiastic about the possibility of issuing visas ``to the
 litany of individuals that Castro proposed sending in a live televised speech late
 Wednesday.

 Reports from Cuba said the proposed delegation would include a ``legal advisor --
 Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's largely rubber-stamp legislature and Castro's
 designated manager of U.S.-Cuba relations.

 Castro's offer to send 12 of Elian's classmates along on the trip to Washington for
 as long as the appeal process takes was criticized by exiles as proof that he runs
 the country like a plantation.

 ``I doubt very much if the parents of those 12 kids were consulted on whether they
 approved sending their kids to Washington, but Castro is always acting as owner
 and lord of the farm that is Cuba, said Miami-based human rights activist Ruth
 Montaner.

 Elian stayed home from school yet another day Thursday, splashing in an
 inflatable pool outside his Little Havana home.

 Herald staff writers Ana Acle, Alfonso Chardy and Frank Davies, Herald writer
 Mireidy Fernandez, and staff translator Renato Perez contributed to this report.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald