Any means may be used to return boy to his father

 BY JAY WEAVER, ANA ACLE AND MARIKA LYNCH

 Top U.S. officials vowed Sunday to end the Elian Gonzalez custody case this week,
 saying they will turn up the pressure and use whatever means necessary to compel the boy's
 Miami relatives to give him back to his father.

 Department of Justice officials said they will issue a letter as early as Tuesday demanding
 that the relatives turn over the boy at a neutral location other than their Little Havana home. If
 they don't comply, officials will seek a federal court order to release the 6-year-old to them
 immediately.

 If the family defies that order and breaks the law, the government is prepared to use federal
 marshals and immigration agents to pick up Elian and possibly arrest his great-uncle
 Lazaro Gonzalez, who is caring for the boy.

 The dispute over Elian's future sparked debate nationwide Sunday. On national television news
 programs, three of Gonzalez's lawyers said Lazaro Gonzalez is reluctant to deliver the boy
 to a neutral location -- but that in the end he and his family would obey the law if the
 Immigration and Naturalization Service came to their home for Elian.

 ''They will unlock the doors. They will stand back,'' attorney Spencer Eig said on ABC's
 This Week program. ''But Lazaro Gonzalez has made a solemn promise to Elian that he won't
 do anything to harm him. And to send that boy back to Cuba will harm him.''

 In other developments Sunday, Attorney General Janet Reno downplayed talk about the
 use of force to remove Elian from his great-uncle's home, stressing that cooperation
 is the preferred method to end the 4 1/2-month standoff. But, if Lazaro Gonzalez proves to be
 uncooperative, she hinted that seeking a court order and using federal agents were last-resort
 options.

 ''One of the things you do in a situation like this is say, 'what if?' '' Reno said on
 CNN's Late Edition. ''But I have neither received nor reviewed nor approved any
 plan that would do that.''

 In Washington, meanwhile, Elian's father -- Juan Miguel Gonzalez -- met with the
 two fishermen who rescued his son off Fort Lauderdale on Thanksgiving Day. But
 Sam Ciancio and Donato Dalrymple, who are cousins, left the morning meeting
 separately.

 ''Me and my cousin have different opinions,'' Ciancio said, stressing that he
 respects the father's desire to reclaim Elian but that his cousin thinks the boy
 should stay in Miami. ''Donato Dalrymple does not speak for me.''

 PROTESTS CONTINUE

 In Little Havana, small protests continued. Dozens of people staged minor
 demonstrations, including a car caravan through the streets.

 Protest leader Miguel Saavedra of the Vigilia Mambisa organization was arrested
 during the caravan when police concluded that the protest was disrupting traffic,
 said Miami Poice spokesman Delrish Moss.

 Moss said Saavedra was charged with disorderly conduct and also held on a prior
 disorderly conduct bench warrant.

 Also, dozens of supporters kept vigil at Elian's house, determined not to let the
 shipwreck survivor return to Cuba.

 ''We want Elian to stay,'' said Julia Vasquez, 59, a West Dade housewife. ''I
 believe it's now in the hands of God.''

 What the government will do to resolve the crisis -- one that has riveted the
 world's attention because it involves a tug of war between Fidel Castro and
 Miami's Cuban exiles -- dominated TV and radio talk shows, in the nation's capital
 and Miami itself. The custody issue has deeply divided Miami-Dade residents,
 with a Herald poll showing that most Cuban Americans want Elian to stay while a
 similar number of white non-Hispanics and blacks saying he should return to
 Cuba with his father.

 Justice Department lawyers want to transfer Elian to his father by week's end,
 while lawyers for his Miami relatives want to exhaust all legal options to keep him
 here first.

 Juan Miguel Gonzalez, the father, arrived in Washington on Thursday to reclaim
 his son, who lost his mother in late November on a boat journey from Cuba that
 also cost the lives of 10 others.

 EXPERTS MEETING

 On Sunday, Juan Miguel, his wife Nersy Carmenate and their infant son, Hianny,
 met with a Spanish-speaking psychiatrist and psychologist hired by the
 government to discuss the most appropriate way for Elian to be transferred to
 him.

 The meeting, held at his attorney Gregory Craig's law firm, was ''very positive,''
 INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said.

 The experts plan to meet today at Jackson Memorial Hospital with Lazaro
 Gonzalez and his daughter, Marisleysis, who views herself as a surrogate mother
 figure to Elian.

 But Lazaro Gonzalez asked that the meeting be delayed because his daughter
 was hospitalized again suffering from stress caused by the custody dispute.

 After the scheduled meeting today, immigration officials plan to send a letter
 Tuesday or Wednesday to Lazaro Gonzalez ordering him to surrender Elian at a
 neutral location, away from the dozens of Cuban exile supporters surrounding his
 Little Havana home. The transfer date could come possibly by week's end.

 In a letter Saturday to Reno, Lazaro Gonzalez said his family was disheartened
 that the government's experts won't be evaluating Elian.

 ''It would be difficult for us to believe that these experts were selected by our
 government simply because their opinions reflect your predetermined views of this
 matter without any consideration of Elian's best interest,'' Lazaro Gonzalez wrote.
 ''I believe that the experts should meet with Elian and his American family before
 reaching their conclusions.''

 CHALLENGE LOST

 Lazaro Gonzalez sued the INS after it refused to give Elian a political asylum
 hearing. But he lost the challenge in Miami federal court last month.

 Lazaro Gonzalez's lawyers are expected to file today a formal appeal of U.S.
 District Judge K. Michael Moore's ruling that Reno has the authority to decide
 what happens to Elian.

 At the same time, the lawyers have asked Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jennifer
 Bailey to grant Lazaro Gonzalez temporary custody of Elian because Juan Miguel
 Gonzalez has not responded to the great-uncle's custody petition in family court.

 But on Sunday, Bailey said she questioned whether she can consider the petition
 because ''much has occurred since Jan. 10,'' when a previous state circuit judge
 gave Lazaro Gonzalez emergency custody until the dispute were resolved during
 a full hearing.

 Bailey said she was concerned about whether any of the issues raised in family
 court by Lazaro Gonzalez might be superseded by federal immigration law.

 ''As reflected in the federal pleadings and Judge Moore's order, the attorney
 general determined that the child belongs with his father, a determination which
 the federal court found permissible and controlling as to the child,'' Bailey wrote in
 a recent order. ''Do the facts preclude the court from considering any aspects of
 the petition?''

 The great-uncle's lawyers must respond to that question in court papers by
 Tuesday.