By DAVID JOHNSTON

          WASHINGTON, April 20 -- After a meeting today with Attorney
          General Janet Reno, federal law-enforcement authorities began to
          mobilize to remove Elián González forcibly from the home of the Miami relatives who
          have refused to hand over the 6-year-old Cuban boy to his father, government
          officials said.

          Time, they said, has nearly run out on a negotiated solution. They said
          law-enforcement action was now all but certain and would be carried out by
          immigration agents and federal marshals who have been quietly arriving in Miami in
          recent days.

          Aides said tonight that Ms. Reno was still prepared to listen to any specific proposal
          to conclude the matter peacefully.

          In blunt comments this evening that sounded like a prelude to action, President
          Clinton said the father should wait no longer for his son. "There is now no
          conceivable argument for his not being reunited with his son," Mr. Clinton told
          reporters, adding, "I think he should be reunited and in as prompt and orderly a
          way as possible."

          The hardening rhetoric and surge of behind-the-scenes activity came one day
          after a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th
          Circuit, in Atlanta, barred the authorities from removing the boy from the United
          States. The appeals court did not prohibit the Justice Department from ordering the
          boy's Miami relatives to surrender him to the authorities.

          Today, Elián's father, Juan Miguel González, renewed his plea for the
          government to deliver his son. "Don't let them continue to abuse my son," Mr.
          González said, referring to the Miami relatives who have cared for Elián since
          he was plucked from ocean waters off Florida last November, a survivor
          of an ill-fated effort to flee Cuba.

          "I really wish to be with my son," Mr. González said, speaking in Spanish to
          reporters gathered outside the home of a Cuban diplomat in suburban
          Washington where he has been staying. "He belongs with me."

          This evening, the boy spoke with his father on a telephone in the yard
          outside his Miami relatives' home, said a spokesman for the family,
          Armando Gutierrez.

          Members of the family were outside during the evening, and in the streets
          in front of the Little Havana house of Elián's great-uncle, Lázaro González,
          the crowd grew to about 200.

          One of the people in front of the house, Jorge González, took note of
          comments by President Fidel Castro of Cuba likening his compatriots to
          terrorists and mentioning guns around the house. "All we're going to do is
          form a human chain," Mr. González said. "We're not terrorists. My only
          weapon is my walkie-talkie. I'm here to protect the boy."

          As the atmosphere around the case grew more tense, Ms. Reno met with
          senior law-enforcement officials to discuss the preparations under way to
          carry out a tactical operation in Miami. The meeting suggested that Ms.
          Reno, who has been under heavy pressure to resolve the case, had
          reached a decision to end the impasse over the boy's custody.

          For months she had tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Miami relatives to
          give up the child even as negotiations repeatedly stalled over their refusal
          to relinquish him.

          The officials said the number of agents would be kept small enough to
          avoid the appearance of a military-style assault, but large enough to ensure
          the safety of the boy and the agents.

          It was not precisely clear when agents would move in to retrieve the child,
          but the operation seemed likely at any time. One official said it would take
          place "at the appropriate time," probably in a matter of a few days at most.

          The officials said they believed they could remove the child without
          interference from protesters but were concerned about potentially violent
          demonstrations by Cuban-Americans in Miami after Elián is taken.

          The officials said that a tactical operation had become more dangerous as
          the custody battle has worn on and that the action would now have to be
          carried out in a hostile neighborhood. Only yesterday, the neighborhood
          exploded in triumphant demonstrations over the appellate court ruling that
          offered the relatives another day in court.

          As the case preoccupied administration officials, it also continued to create
          political headaches for Vice President Al Gore, who has said the boy
          should be granted permanent residency status. In a television interview
          today in New York, Mr. Gore bristled when asked if his decision was
          motivated by politics.

          "That's not the case," he said. "It's consistent with my long-term position on
          Castro. And more to the point, consistent with the way our country always
          deals with cases where custody is in dispute. And of course, the father's
          wishes are often determinative. But that decision is supposed to be made
          according to the best interest of the child."

          After meeting on Wednesday night with President Clinton aboard Air
          Force One, Ms. Reno broke off a trip to a Montana Indian tribe today and
          returned to her office where she conferred with aides.

          In the meeting as the president and Ms. Reno returned from a memorial
          ceremony for the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the two officials
          discussed "all aspects of the issue," a presidential aide said.

          Privately, however, some White House aides have been critical that Ms.
          Reno had demanded the transfer of the child, but had failed to match her
          rhetoric with action.

          "There is some concern that Justice may be talking tough but not making a
          decision to follow through," one official said. "We just want to make sure
          that what they say matches what they are going to do."

          The White House aide said that presidential advisers had grown "fed up"
          with Elián's Miami relatives who had "used up any good will they've had,"
          but expected that the Justice Department would win little praise for
          removing the boy.

          Today, Joe Lockhart, the presidential spokesman, said Mr. Clinton
          approved of Ms. Reno's handling of the matter. "The president believes the
          attorney general has moved forward in a deliberate way, which he believes
          is appropriate, allowing all sides their chance to have their say both to the
          attorney general and in the court of law."

          Other administration officials were less generous. They said there was a
          sense within the government that Ms. Reno's problem was largely her own
          doing. They said Ms. Reno, who knows her native Miami so well,
          appeared increasingly paralyzed by weighing too many considerations.

          But today's deliberations at the Justice Department seemed to bring to an
          end what some advisers said had been a painful period of indecision.
          Through what they said was a mix of good intentions and extreme caution,
          Ms. Reno had edged close to the brink of a potentially violent clash
          between the government and Elián's supporters in Miami.

          Practically speaking, the officials said, she has run out of alternatives.

          She could continue to do nothing, but waiting any longer before ordering
          the child's removal seems like an unlikely possibility confronted as Ms.
          Reno is with heavy pressure from inside and outside the government to
          resolve the situation.

          Some officials said Ms. Reno seemed to have misread the depth of the
          political passions swirling through Miami's Cuban-American community,
          which have solidified support behind the relatives' refusal to voluntarily
          hand over the boy to the authorities.

          Moreover, they said, she seemed to have misread the attitude of the
          appeals court, believing that the law was on her side, a view that was
          shaken when the court rejected the government's request to lift the
          emergency order barring immigration officials from allowing the boy to
          return to Cuba.