By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          WASHINGTON -- Running out of options, Attorney General Janet
          Reno is waiting for law enforcement officials to determine the
          best time and method to take Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives, her
          spokesman said today. But she still hopes the family will voluntarily turn over the
          6-year-old Cuban boy.

          "I'm just trying to work it out," Reno told reporters. "I'm exploring every possibility I
          can to see this resolved peacefully, promptly and properly."

          Asked if she was on the verge of ordering law enforcement agents to remove Elian
          from his Miami relatives' home, Reno replied, "If I were going to do something
          like that, I certainly wouldn't tell you."

          Reno offered to meet today with the Cuban boy's father, Juan Miguel
          Gonzalez, who had asked for a session Thursday. Arrangements were still being
          worked out.

          At the White House, spokesman Joe Lockhart said today the turnover of the
          boy "should be now done in a prompt and orderly way." He said a "good volume" of
          calls was received on the White House comment line Thursday night,
          "overwhelmingly in favor of reuniting the boy with his father."

          And the Justice Department received more than 7,000 telephone calls after Juan
          Miguel Gonzalez made a televised appeal Thursday afternoon for Americans to
          urge Reno and President Clinton to help him get his son back quickly.

          "If necessary the attorney general is prepared to use law enforcement" to pick
          up Elian over the objections of relatives who have temporarily cared for him since
          Thanksgiving, Justice Department spokeswoman Carole Florman said. "If
          and when there's a law enforcement action, we are not going to be
          previewing it."

          Florman portrayed Reno as virtually out of options other than law
          enforcement.

          "There have always been three trains moving simultaneously down the
          track -- negotiations for a transfer, litigation and law enforcement,"
          Florman said. "We are no longer in the engineer's seat on the negotiation
          train. We're just passengers.

          "She is looking to our law enforcement officials to determine the best
          timing and methods" for removing Elian from the house where hundreds of
          Cuban exiles have gathered, promising to form a human chain to prevent
          the boy's removal, Florman said.

          Nevertheless, Florman said, "The doors are always going to be open to the
          family for a negotiated settlement. She said last night she is willing to
          consider any specific suggestions for how to achieve a cooperative
          resolution."

          Planning for law enforcement operations has been under way for the last
          10 days, Florman said. This has included assessment of any patterns in the
          activities of the crowd of exiles in the street, consultation with local police
          and positioning of key federal agents nearby, other officials said.

          "There is a plan. There's probably more than one," Florman said today.

          On Thursday, Clinton said a court ruling has stripped Elian's Miami
          relatives of all arguments against transferring temporary custody to his
          father. "That is the law," Clinton said.

          Clinton commented after a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in
          Atlanta said Elian must remain in the United States until the court decides
          whether he should get an asylum hearing. A hearing was set for May 11.

          The ruling was viewed by the Miami relatives and their allies as a victory,
          but Clinton said it reinforced the administration's case for Elian to be
          reunited with his father.

          The Washington Post today quoted unidentified government officials as
          saying they expected a law enforcement move to retrieve Elian by the
          middle of next week. USA Today quoted officials as saying the action
          would come next week.

          A lawyer for the Miami relatives indicated today that the great-uncle,
          Lazaro Gonzalez, who has control of Elian, and other family members will
          not assist federal agents' attempt to take the boy.

          "So he's not going to cooperate?" attorney Jose Garcia-Pedrosa was asked
          on CBS' "The Early Show."

          "Without a psychological evaluation that says that that is in the best interest
          of the boy in the opinion of a professional, not a lawyer or an immigration
          official, that's correct," Garcia-Pedrosa replied.

          Clinton, making his strongest statement to date on the case, said he knew
          of "no conceivable argument" against the custody transfer.

          "I think he (the father) should be reunited with his son," the president said.
          "That is the law. And the main argument of the family in Miami for not
          doing so has now been removed.

          "Their main argument was if we let him go back to his father before the
          court rules, he might go back to Cuba. The court has now said he shouldn't
          go back to Cuba. The Justice Department agrees with that."

          Clinton generally has been standing back and leaving the decisions in the
          Elian case to Reno, who last week ordered the Miami relatives to turn over
          the boy. The family refused.

          "The attorney general is leading the effort," presidential spokesman Joe
          Lockhart said Thursday. "The president has been briefed and has had
          input. Is she making the decisions here? Yes."

          Less than two hours before Clinton spoke, Elian's father, Juan Miguel
          Gonzalez, asked Americans to write to Clinton and Reno, urging them to
          act decisively to end the five-month father-son separation.

          "Don't let them continue to abuse my son," the elder Gonzalez said,
          referring to the Miami relatives who have been caring for Elian since he
          was found clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving
          Day. Elian and two others survived, but his mother and 10 others fleeing
          Cuba drowned when their boat sank.

          "I was promised that I was going to be reunited with my son," he said,
          speaking in Spanish near his temporary home in suburban Maryland. "Two
          weeks have gone by and it hasn't happened. I have always understood, I
          have always thought, that the United States is a country which abided by
          its laws."