BY JAY WEAVER

 With a dozen attorneys sitting at a negotiating table in the INS district office in
 Miami on March 29, Lazaro Gonzalez said he would agree to deliver his
 great-nephew Elian Gonzalez to immigration authorities only if the 6-year-old
 himself agreed to go back to his father.

 Immigration officials scoffed. But the declaration also gave them reason to believe
 compromise was possible.

 So began what ultimately turned into four fruitless days of closed-door
 negotiations that are scheduled to resume this morning in the U.S. attorney's
 office on the eighth floor of the federal justice building in Miami.

 The lawyers aren't allowed to talk publicly about their deliberations. But sources
 familiar with the talks say they started on the morning of March 28 with
 suspicions on both sides, but also with great curiosity on each side about how
 much the adversaries might concede.

 The talks bogged down largely on two issues: Cuban leader Fidel Castro's
 unexpected announcement that Elian's father could come to the United States,
 and the insistence by Elian's Miami relatives that psychologists in effect
 determine whether the boy is to be transferred to the father.

 The Immigration and Naturalization Service forced the relatives' lawyers to the
 table by threatening to revoke the boy's immigration parole and move immediately
 to turn him over to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, in Cuba. The INS wanted the
 relatives -- who are fighting a federal court decision that cleared the way for the
 boy's return to Cuba -- to accept a fast-track appeal.

 The talks began in earnest March 29, when Lazaro Gonzalez produced his signed
 counterproposal.

 His plan: He would turn over Elian if independent psychologists found it in the
 boy's best interest and if Elian himself agreed to be transferred.

 While the INS lawyers rejected that idea, they were encouraged by the
 great-uncle's apparent willingness to turn over the boy at a neutral location,
 somewhere other than his Little Havana home. Immigration authorities do not
 want to use force to remove the boy, fearing a violent confrontation with protesters
 ringing the home.

 PSYCHOLOGISTS

 They said they would consider allowing psychologists to act in an advisory role to
 help make the hand-over easier for the boy. But they would not consider backing
 off the change in custody.

 That same night, immigration officials were also motivated by Castro's bombshell
 announcement that he would let Elian's father come to the United States to claim
 his son under certain conditions. Both sides learned of Castro's comments during
 the meeting. They were taken completely by surprise.

 Talks continued on subsequent days, but with little progress.

 Five lawyers represented the government; a total of seven attorneys represented
 the relatives, although not all were present at once.

 ``Too many lawyers in the same room is not such a good thing,'' said one person
 within earshot of the negotiations between the U.S. government and legal team for
 the boy's Miami relatives.

 The sessions were spiced up with occasional visits by Lazaro Gonzalez, and his
 daughter, Marisleysis, who made emotional pleas to let the boy have a political
 asylum hearing.

 The talks were recessed March 31. Both sides remained stuck during a weekend
 break on the basic question of how the child would be transferred peacefully to his
 father.

 SUSPICION

 The relatives also remained deeply suspicious because the government continued
 to threaten to revoke the immigration parole that allows the boy to stay in this
 country.

 Meanwhile, Elian's relatives launched a campaign on major television news
 programs to portray the boy's father as unfit to raise his son -- despite
 characterizing him as a loving father after Elian lost his mother on a boat journey
 from Cuba to Florida in late November.

 Immigration officials, angered by those public relations attacks, which they saw
 as baseless, still put off revoking the boy's parole twice as the negotiations
 slogged on.

 But on Monday, they declared the INS would transfer the parole to Elian's father
 upon his arrival in the United States. Juan Miguel Gonzalez would then assume
 temporary care of his son.

 INS officials assured the Gonzalez relatives in Miami, along with the vocal Cuban
 exile community, that they would not remove the boy immediately. And, after
 recessing talks Tuesday at the U.S. attorney's office, officials repeated those
 assurances.

 COUSIN FAINTS

 The talks were put on hold Wednesday because Marisleysis Gonzalez, a
 surrogate mother figure, fainted during a round of television interviews the previous
 day. She was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon.

 A top INS lawyer told CNN Wednesday that further delays in returning the boy to
 his father may soon become ``intolerable.''

 ``It certainly is the case that, it seems to me, there will reach a point where any
 further delay is intolerable,'' said INS general counsel Bo Cooper.

 ``At this point, each passing day is another day of separation between the father
 and son,'' he said.

 The announcement late Wednesday that Juan Miguel Gonzalez would arrive in
 the United States this morning seemed likely to harden the INS' stance even
 further.

 But lawyers for the Miami relatives say they will turn over Elian only at his
 great-uncle's home and only if the INS demands that they do so. While Lazaro
 Gonzalez refuses to deliver the boy to a neutral location, his attorneys say, ``He
 will obey the rule of law.'' But neither the great-uncle nor his legal team says that
 hand-over will occur at a neutral location, such as Homestead Air Force Base.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald