By Karen DeYoung
                  Washington Post Staff Writer
                  Monday, April 10, 2000; Page A02

                  The Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez yesterday sought to delay a meeting
                  scheduled today with mental health experts, whom U.S. officials have
                  asked for advice on how best to return the 6-year-old to his Cuban father.
                  But government officials said they rejected any delay and would tell the
                  relatives "we need to move this process forward."

                  In a lengthy letter sent to Attorney General Janet Reno, the relatives said
                  Marisleysis Gonzalez, whom they have described as a "mother figure" to
                  Elian since his rescue four months ago, was hospitalized for exhaustion
                  Saturday and would be unlikely to attend the meeting. The government
                  responded that while they hoped she could be there, "we will still hold this
                  meeting." Officials said the experts would offer to visit her in the hospital, if
                  necessary.

                  The day's back-and-forth came as the Miami relatives sought to delay
                  what Reno and other senior government officials have said is the inevitable
                  return of Elian this week to his father. The government has said it hopes the
                  relatives will cooperate in a peaceful and "constructive" transfer of the boy.
                  But Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. repeated yesterday that
                  the government "will do what is necessary" for the transfer to occur.

                  Reno said Friday the relatives will be told early this week when and where
                  to turn over Elian. The government would prefer a location away from the
                  Little Havana home of Lazaro Gonzalez, the great-uncle with whom Elian
                  has been staying in Miami and the father of Marisleysis. The relatives have
                  said they will not cooperate with any government transfer plan, but will not
                  oppose federal agents who come to pick up Elian.

                  Hundreds of Cuban American demonstrators who have surrounded the
                  house since last week have indicated that they may not give way to
                  government agents. Government officials said if they are forced to pass
                  through them to enter and leave the house, they would hope the relatives
                  would at least attempt to placate the demonstrators; if not, they expect
                  local law enforcement to act if any violent protests erupt.

                  Elian put in appearances throughout the morning, the Associated Press
                  reported from Miami. He stood at the front door in jeans and a T-shirt,
                  waving to demonstrators with both hands, and later, wearing a suit, left in a
                  car with Lazaro Gonzalez and his wife to attend a relative's baptism.

                  The demonstrators agree with the relatives' insistence--in legal cases the
                  relatives have made unsuccessfully in federal court and now are attempting
                  in Florida family court--that sending Elian back to communist Cuba would
                  constitute child abuse. He was rescued on Thanksgiving Day from a
                  shipwreck in which his mother and others fleeing Cuba drowned. The
                  government has said his Cuban father, who arrived in Washington from
                  Havana last Thursday, has sole rights to Elian's custody and has ordered
                  the Miami relatives to return the child.

                  Two of three members of the government-appointed psychiatric team met
                  yesterday with Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, at the downtown
                  Washington office of his attorney, Gregory B. Craig. Although Craig
                  declined to characterize the meeting, at which no Cuban officials were
                  present, government officials said it was "positive."

                  The government says the mental health team will only advise on the least
                  traumatic way to bring Elian to his father. Attorneys for the Miami relatives
                  want a psychiatric examination to determine whether transferring Elian at all
                  to his father is in the boy's best interest.

                  Arguing for at least a more gradual transfer, lawyer Linda Osberg-Braun
                  said that "cutting off Mari's motherly bond that she has formed with Elian . .
                  . will harm him forever if he will lose his mother a second time." The
                  relative's legal advisers have said the father is acting under pressure from
                  the Cuban government. Another lawyer for the relatives, Spencer Eig, said
                  Cuban President Fidel Castro planned to take Elian away from his father
                  and make him "a trophy" for communism.

                  Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, on NBC's "Meet
                  the Press" yesterday, said, "We are not going to parade him, we are not
                  going to use him as those people in Miami have been doing for more than
                  four months. He will return to his home with his father and his family. It's as
                  simple as that."

                  The relatives also have complained that the mental health team has no plans
                  to meet with Elian--who they say does not want his father to take him back
                  to Cuba.

                  Government officials said they planned to inform the relatives that the team
                  will decide whether to meet with Elian only after the relatives agree to
                  cooperate in the transfer, and only with his father's permission.

                  The father also met today in Craig's office with the two Florida fishermen
                  who rescued Elian. The two cousins, Sam Ciancio and Donato Dalrymple,
                  had joined with the Miami relatives who want the boy to stay in the United
                  States. After a meeting in which sources said Gonzalez embraced and
                  thanked them, however, at least one of the fishermen seemed to have
                  changed his mind.

                  During the meeting, sources said, Ciancio said he felt Elian should return to
                  his father and asked if he could visit them in Cuba. Outside, Ciancio told
                  reporters, "I came here to satisfy my own heart. I am leaving here
                  satisfied."

                  Dalrymple disagreed, and later appeared outside the Bethesda home of the
                  Cuban diplomat with whom Juan Miguel Gonzalez is staying to demand,
                  along with another Miami great-uncle, that the father meet with Miami
                  family members.

                  Beyond police barricades, a small crowd of demonstrators chanted, in
                  Spanish: "Debajo el frio, Aqui esta tu tio"; in English: "Stop the deep
                  freeze, your uncle is here."

                  Staff writer David A. Vise contributed to this report.

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