By RICK BRAGG and EDWARD WONG

          As Attorney General Janet Reno met with advisers in Washington to
          assess the international custody battle over Elián González, the boy's father
          pleaded with the American public to help him reclaim his son.

          "Please, I ask you to help me," Juan Miguel González, the father who flew
          from Cuba on April 6 to reunite with his son, said at a news conference in
          Bethesda, Md. "For me, this has been very painful to see my son Elián in the
          last five months being abused."

          Elián has been in the care of his great-uncle, Lázaro González, and other
          Miami relatives since Nov. 25, when fishermen found him clinging to an
          inner-tube off the Florida coast. He was one of three survivors of the capsizing of
          a smuggling boat. His mother, who was divorced from his father, and 10 other
          Cubans had drowned.

          Defying orders from the federal government, the Miami relatives have
          refused to reunite the 6-year-old boy with his father, who wants to bring his
          son back to Cuba.

          Ms. Reno canceled a trip today to Montana and returned to Washington
          after a federal court on Wednesday rebuked the government for its handling
          of Elián's request for asylum.

          Ms. Reno had planned to visit an Indian reservation in Montana. Instead, she
          headed home to take stock of the stalemate over Elián after the court in
          Atlanta extended a temporary stay order that prevents him from leaving the United
          States.

          When the appeals court made its ruling, Ms. Reno had flown to
          Oklahoma City to observe the anniversary of the 1995 domestic terrorist
          bombing that killed 168 people there.

          The 11th Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta criticized the way
          federal officials had handled Elián's asylum request and extended an
          order that will keep the boy in the United States until the court hears the
          full appeal of his case.

          The court barred anyone from taking Elián from the country until it hears
          the child's case on May 11, and, in pointed language, suggested that his
          Miami relatives' efforts to have his request for asylum heard in court
          should not have been ignored.

          It was, in a legal sense, only a ruling on an emergency injunction to keep
          the child in this country for a few more weeks, but the language seemed
          to chastise the government for asserting that only the boy's father was
          legally entitled to speak for him. Elián's father lives in Cuba and came to
          this country early this month to take the boy back with him.

          The ruling ensures that questions of who rightfully speaks for the boy and
          whether he is entitled to apply for asylum will be fully aired.

          A three-judge panel of court concluded unanimously that they "doubt that
          protecting a party's day in court, when he has an appeal of arguable
          merit, is contrary to the public interest."

          The ruling lent credence to the Miami family's argument that the boy is a
          bona fide candidate for political asylum.

          But in their conclusion, the judges wrote that the "true legal merits of this
          case will be finally decided in the future," adding, "We need to think more
          and hard about this case for which no sure and clear answers shine out
          today."

          The government could try to have the stay lifted by the full circuit court or
          a Supreme Court justice, or take no action until the hearing in May.

          "We will continue to pray," said Lázaro González, Elián's great-uncle,
          who defied a federal order last week to give up the boy and produce him
          at an airport for an eventual reunification with his Cuban father.

          Around the house, demonstrators celebrated on Wednesday afternoon
          with geysers of Champagne and quiet prayers over clenched rosaries.

          "It's a victory for the Cuban people," said Francisca G. Espinosa, 68, a
          retiree who lives in Miami Beach. It was unclear if she was referring to
          Cubans on this side of the Florida Straits, the other side, or all of them.

          The ruling did not answer a key question: who should have custody of
          Elián while the legal process plays out.

          The Justice Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service
          have insisted that Elián be reunited with his father, Juan Miguel González,
          who is waiting for his child at a Cuban diplomat's house in Bethesda, Md.

          By avoiding that issue, Ms. Reno said, the court left her the option of
          removing the boy from his uncle's home -- as she has threatened to do
          for days. But Wednesday night, it remained unclear whether she would
          take such a step and officials at the Justice Department indicated they
          had been surprised by the court's decision and were confused about how
          to proceed.

          "The court's order does not preclude me from placing Elián in his father's
          care while he is in the United States," the attorney general said as she
          stepped off a plane in Oklahoma City.

          On Wednesday night, Elián remained encircled by demonstrators at his
          uncle's house in Miami, many of whom have said they will not allow the
          boy to be moved.

          Ms. Reno said on Wednesday, "We are going to take and consider all
          our options and take the course of action that we deem appropriate
          under the circumstances."

          A month ago, the reunion of father and son seemed assured. In March, a
          Federal District Court judge in Miami upheld an Immigration and
          Naturalization Service order to return Elián to his father, without a formal
          hearing on Elián's request for asylum.

          The Justice Department and the immigration service have said only the
          boy's father can speak for him, stressing that common sense dictates that
          a 6-year-old cannot understand the complex issue of asylum.

          But the appellate court seemed critical of the way both agencies have
          treated the case.

          "Not only does it appear that plaintiff might be entitled to apply
          personally for asylum, it appears that he did so," wrote the panel,
          referring to a request for asylum signed by Elián. "According to the
          record, plaintiff, although a young child, has expressed a wish that he not
          be returned to Cuba.

          "It appears that never have I.N.S. officials attempted to interview plaintiff
          about his own wishes. It is not clear that the I.N.S., in finding plaintiff's
          father to be the only proper representative, considered all of the relevant
          factors, particularly the child's separate and independent interests in
          seeking asylum."

          The panel went on to write that, under the Immigration Service's own
          guidelines, a minor can, under some circumstances, apply for asylum
          even against "the express wishes of his parents."

          In Washington, Gregory B. Craig, a lawyer for Juan Miguel González,
          said the ruling allowed the Miami family to continue to turn the boy
          against his father in what he has referred to as brainwashing.

          "If the government does not act immediately to remove Elián from the
          care of Lázaro González and return him to his father, it will bear
          responsibility for the harm that continues to be inflicted on Juan Miguel's
          beloved son," Mr. Craig said. "Not only has Elián remained in the
          custody and control of his Miami relatives, his situation has deteriorated."

          The ruling was another setback for the federal government in a case that
          saw the attorney general travel to Miami in person to try and work out a
          deal to reunite the father and son.

          That trip that ended with Lázaro González saying that if federal officials
          wanted the boy, they would have to come into his home, encircled by
          supporters, and take him.

          "They have the legal right to remove him, but politically speaking, it puts
          his removal very much in question," said Pamela Falk, a professor of
          international law at the City University of New York, who has argued
          cases similar to Elián's.

          But she and other political experts said the ruling may also bode well for
          the family's full appeal.

          "The decision scolds the I.N.S. for not considering Elián's interest and
          scolds them for not ever speaking to Elián," Professor Falk said. "This
          decision gives a great boost to the possibility of the success of the
          appeal."

          But, even if the family wins the appeal, it only means that the boy's
          asylum request returns to the immigration service, and Ms. Reno is,
          ultimately, in charge of that agency.

          "So the boy just goes back to Reno," Ms. Falk said.

          For now, the fight in Miami goes on to keep the child in the house and
          away from a father that many people here see as an agent, or a puppet,
          of the Fidel Castro government.

          Justice Department officials said on Wednesday that reuniting Elián with
          his father would not mean that they leave the country until after the May
          11 hearing. A federal order would prevent that, the officials said, and Mr.
          González has said he would remain with the boy until the appeal is heard.

          But lawyers for the family seemed hopeful that they, and an army of
          Cuban-Americans, could keep the boy in Miami.

          "We're delighted," said Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, a lawyer for the relatives.
          "Had the boy been taken out of the country and we had won the appeal,
          what would we have won?"

          Elián, said Mr. Garcia-Pedrosa, would never have come back from
          Cuba.

          At the house on Northwest Second Street, demonstrators let down their
          vigil long enough to joyously celebrate one more victory over the United
          States government.

          "This might be a small step, but it is in the right direction," said Ramón
          Saúl Sánchez, who led the demonstration outside the house since the
          standoff began five months ago.

          The crowd chanted, "Fidel, crazy man, you have little time left."

          "The law is working," said Miguel Saavedra, president of Vigilia
          Mambisa, an exile group in Miami. He uncorked a bottle of champagne,
          in celebration, soaking several people. "Justice in the U.S. is working.
          Everyone is so happy."

          Not everyone in Miami was happy. Overhead, a plane droned by trailing
          a banner that said "SEND ELIAN HOME -- The Taxpayers." The
          banner was apparently in reference to the millions of dollars the standoff,
          and the demand for added police and other municipal services, is costing
          Miami and Miami-Dade County.

          And, one reporter was stabbed with a ball-point pen by an agitated
          demonstrator.

          But nothing seemed to dampen the mood among Cuban-Americans here,
          who see the return of Elián to Cuba as a victory for Mr. Castro. They
          either discount or ignore the wishes of relatives there for the boy's return,
          and view their pleas for his return as Communist propaganda.

          "He's just a little kid," said James B. Exposito, 16, a freshman at Miami
          High School. "Over there he doesn't have nothing. He won't have the
          love of his family there. They take care of him here. Everybody will take
          care of him here."