BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI AND JAY WEAVER

 After months of saying they would turn Elian Gonzalez over to his father if he came
 to the United States, the boy's Miami relatives backpedaled Friday as they waited to
 find out whether Juan Miguel Gonzalez would make the trip.

 Setting new conditions, lawyers for the relatives said the Miami Gonzalezes would
 not voluntarily surrender the boy to his father while a federal appeals court is still
 deciding the boy's fate. If the Immigration and Naturalization Service demands that
 they turn over the boy, they will do so, but only if agents come to the family's home
 in Little Havana to pick him up, the lawyers said.

 ``If that's what the INS dictates, the INS has the right to do that,'' said Manny
 Diaz, one of the relatives' attorneys. ``The family has said from the beginning
 that it will not obstruct that process.''

 The family's new position on surrendering Elian to his father could doom talks
 with Department of Justice officials over delaying Elian's return to Cuba while
 a federal appeals court rules on the relatives' effort to keep the boy here. Those
 negotiations are scheduled to resume Monday. The 11th U.S. District Court
 of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments in the case for the week of May 8.

 ``They have said publicly in the past they would turn over the boy if his father
 came here,'' a government official said. ``What they're saying now goes against
 everything they've said from the very beginning.''

 NEGOTIATIONS

 The government even has included the condition in the agreement it is trying to
 negotiate with the relatives: a clause says the government would not be bound to
 leave Elian with his relatives during the appeal in the event of ``a material change
 of circumstances, including the father's coming to the United States.''

 The change in the family's position came as family members and their attorneys
 attempted to portray the relationship between Elian and his father as one that is now
 strained.

 Elian's great-uncle, Delfin Gonzalez, said the boy is particularly averse to a proposal,
 made Wednesday by Cuban President Fidel Castro, that Elian live with his father
 and an entourage of schoolmates at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington,
 D.C., while the appeal is pending.

 ``Elian doesn't want to go,'' Delfin Gonzalez said, adding that the father is brusque
 with Elian during daily phone conversations. ``More than respectful, Elian is afraid
 of his dad, and it wouldn't be fair to force him to do something he doesn't want to
 do,'' Delfin Gonzalez said.

 Separately, family attorney Kendall Coffey said Elian's father once told his son
 that his mother, who died crossing the Florida Straits with him, was still alive in
 Cuba.

 ``The father has been verbally pressuring the kid for weeks. During their
 conversations, Elian holds up the phone because he doesn't want to hear it,''
 Coffey said, adding that once, as Elian held the phone up, a family member heard
 the father say, ``Why don't you want to come back to Cuba? Your mother is
 waiting for you in Cardenas.''

 PHONE CONVERSATIONS

 The Miami relatives have taped many of the phone conversations between Elian
 and his father, but Coffey said he did not know if that call had been recorded.

 Efforts to reach Juan Miguel Gonzalez at his Cardenas home were unsuccessful
 Friday night.

 A Justice Department official who asked not to be identified viewed the allegation
 skeptically.

 ``We've given them plenty of opportunity to come up with new information, but
 nothing they have come up with is backed up by concrete evidence,'' the official
 said. ``This new allegation seems awfully late and vague, but they can bring it to
 us if they think it's significant.''

 It was unclear if and when the father would come.

 U.S. officials said he had not applied for a visa Friday. Additionally, the U.S.
 government's hesitancy to grant visas to an entourage of schoolmates and others
 that Castro proposed would travel to the United States with the father could also
 scuttle a trip.

 NO CONCESSIONS

 On Thursday night, a Cuban government statement said the presence around
 Elian of his Cuban schoolmates, teachers, and doctors ``is not negotiable. No
 time should be wasted in naive considerations. We won't make concessions of
 any kind.''

 But Gregory Craig, a Washington attorney who is representing Elian's father, said
 Friday during an appearance on NBC's Today show that the issue of visas for the
 entourage would not necessarily stop the father from coming.

 ``That's not my view,'' he said. ``I'm hopeful that the focus of attention will be on
 reuniting Juan Miguel with his son.'

 Spencer Eig, another lawyer for Elian's relatives, said on the same show that his
 clients did not want to hand Elian over to the entourage out of fear that the boy
 would be ``brainwashed.''

 Beyond persuading the family to surrender Elian to his father, Justice Department
 officials also are insisting the transfer occur at a neutral site to avoid provoking
 protesters at the Gonzalezes' Little Havana home.

 But it is doubtful the Miami relatives would agree to take Elian to a neutral
 location. Diaz, the family's attorney, said the boy's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez,
 would not agree to it.

 INS THREAT

 If the sides fail to agree, the INS has threatened to revoke the 6-year-old's
 permission to stay in the country Tuesday morning, a move that could lead to his
 quick return to Cuba.

 The only reaction attributed to Elian's father Friday came in an open letter
 addressed to U.S. Senate leaders and published in the Communist Party paper
 Granma. In it, Gonzalez urged that legislation that would grant him and his family
 permanent U.S. residency be dropped.

 ``We are frankly surprised that someone could arrogate to himself that initiative
 without our consent and without even asking any of us for our opinion,'' stated the
 letter, which also carried the names of Elian's grandparents and stepmother. ``We
 especially reject, with the utmost vigor, the real purpose of that bill, which is none
 other than to perpetuate the arbitrary retention of Elian Gonzalez Brotons in the
 territory of the United States, in clear violation of international norms.''

 FALLOUT CONTINUES

 In Miami, the political fallout continued from Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas'
 controversial vow to bar county police from assisting federal agents if they attempt
 to take Elian from the Little Havana home.

 African-American leaders blasted Penelas in a news conference Friday.

 ``When there is the slightest hint of civil unrest in the black community, they have
 the National Guard out, they're arresting people. Yet he stood up and almost
 encouraged an insurrection,'' said Nathaniel Wilcox, executive director of People
 United to Lead the Struggle for Equality.

 Herald staff writer Eunice Ponce and Herald translator Renato Perez contributed
 to this report.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald