President Bill Clinton made his strongest statement yet in the Elian Gonzalez case Thursday,
saying there is ``no conceivable argument'' against promptly reuniting the boy with his father.

 The president spoke a day after an appellate court barred the boy's immediate removal
from the country pending resolution of an appeal by Elian's Miami relatives -- an order that
Clinton said should dispose of the relatives' objections that the boy might be taken to Cuba
by his father before they could be heard in court.

 The court left the decision on where the boy should live during the appeal up to the government.

 ``I think he should be reunited with his father. That is the law, and the main argument
of the family in Miami for not doing so has now been removed,'' Clinton said to reporters
at the White House.

 In response to Clinton's remarks, Delfin Gonzalez, Elian's great-uncle in Miami,
shrugged and said, ``They are determined to return the boy to Cuba, and we're
determined not to turn him in.''

 Clinton's comments came in response to a question about a plea made Thursday by
Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

 Addressing the American public, Gonzalez made an impromptu and emotional
statement urging government action.

 ``I send this message, right to the president of this country, the attorney general
of this country, that I be reunited with my son,'' Gonzalez told reporters outside the
suburban Washington home of Cuba's top U.S. envoy, where he has been staying.
``I love my son very much. I need my son at my side . . . Please, please help me.''

 Clinton's message capped a day in which U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
 came under increasing public pressure to end the nearly five-month standoff in
 Little Havana between the government and Elian's relatives.

 PLOTTING STRATEGY

 Reno spent much of the day huddled with key aides deciding how to proceed in
 light of Wednesday's court decision, which called into question the government's
 decision to deny Elian an asylum hearing on the presumption that he is too young
 -- at 6 -- to apply for it over the objections of his father.

 A Justice Department official said a plan for forcible removal was among the
 options discussed at the meeting, but said Reno had made no final decision by
 Thursday evening.

 ``We've been laying the ground already for an enforcement action plan. We will be
 putting that into action, but she has not given the green light to do it at a certain
 time,'' said the official, who requested anonymity. ``That's not to say it can't
 happen in five minutes, or that it can't happen in an hour.''

 According to some news reports, Clinton has chided Reno for not ending the
 standoff sooner. Clinton and Reno talked for 45 minutes on a flight back from a
 memorial for the Oklahoma City bombing victims Wednesday night, Justice
 Department officials said.

 NEUTRAL GROUND

 Bolstered by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Elian's Miami
 relatives on Thursday sought to revive a proposal to have the two warring sides of
 the family meet on neutral ground. But they remained unwilling to turn over Elian
 to his father first, a condition on which Juan Miguel Gonzalez has insisted.

 ``I think that the concept of having this family do what so many families do at this
 time of year -- the Jewish Passover, the Christian Easter and so forth -- is a very
 important step and should take place as soon as possible, but without this
 precondition of having to agree that the boy goes with the father. That's not
 appropriate,'' said Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, an attorney for the Miami relatives.

 ``What should happen is, the family should get together and do what families do
 at this time of year -- have dinner together, you know, spend time together. We
 can't make it happen. We can only suggest that it happens. I think the real
 problem is, is the Cuban government prepared to allow Juan Miguel to attend a
 reunion like that, a meeting in which there's no supervision or control by the
 Cuban government?''

 In Fort Lee, N.J., Vice President Al Gore endorsed the idea of a meeting, urging
 Elian's relatives to get together ``without government officials or lawyers.''

 But Gregory Craig, Juan Miguel Gonzalez's U.S. lawyer, met the relatives' offer
 with skepticism, noting that the relatives have continued to defy a government
 order to surrender the boy.

 ``The point of all that is, they still decline to turn over the boy to his father,'' Craig
 told CNN. ``We could go to Miami and knock on the door and we could come out
 without the boy. That's unacceptable to us. The central issue is whether this boy
 is going to be restored to his father.''

 `HELP ME'

 Later in the day, Juan Miguel Gonzalez spoke to reporters for the first time in two
 weeks outside the Maryland home of Fernando Remirez, Cuba's top diplomat
 here. He asked Americans to write or phone the president and Reno to urge them
 to act.

 Speaking without notes, he said: ``I've come here because they've promised me
 I'd be reunited with my son Elian. Two weeks have passed. I've always had the
 understanding that the United States is a country of laws.

 ``Please, all the people with feelings that really know a father's love for his son,
 help me and don't let them continue putting politics over this. This is simply a
 father and son. Help me. Thank you.''

 RENO PRESSURED?

 Administration officials, meanwhile, declined to discuss reports that Clinton was
 putting pressure on Reno to act.

 Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said that on the flight
 from Oklahoma City, Reno updated Clinton on the appeals court's ruling.

 ``He offered his opinions on the matter and then he reaffirmed his support for her
 on this -- and that he agreed with her position that she's taken and her handling of
 it,'' Florman said.

 White House press secretary Joe Lockhart also declined to go into details during
 a morning press briefing.

 ``What I will say is 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, and
 he believes that that is the right way to do this,'' Lockhart said.

 Herald staff writers Karen Branch, Frank Davies, Carol Rosenberg, Herald writer
 Mireidy Fernandez and Herald wire services contributed to this report.