BY FRANK DAVIES, FRANCES ROBLES AND ANA ACLE

 WASHINGTON -- After an emotional meeting with Elian Gonzalez's father, Attorney General
 Janet Reno announced Friday that U.S. officials will move to transfer the boy to his
 father next week to resolve a family and international crisis that has ``struck the heart
 and soul of the world.''

 Reno also said she asked Elian's Miami relatives to meet Monday with three mental
 health experts chosen by the government -- two psychiatrists and a psychologist -- to discuss
 how the transfer will take place ``in a manner that causes the least disruption as possible to
 Elian.

 ``Monday's consultation,'' the attorney general declared, ``will assist us, not in determining
 whether the transfer should occur, but how it will occur to cause the least disruption
 possible.''

 Juan Miguel Gonzalez's uncle Delfin, one of the Miami relatives trying to keep Elian
 in the United States, flew to Washington to attempt to meet with his nephew, but was
 turned away. He vowed to try again today.

 In a letter Friday evening to Juan Miguel's uncle Lazaro Gonzalez in Miami informing
 him about the Monday meeting, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said the
 three experts strongly recommend that Elian's caregivers accompany the boy when
 he is transferred to his father.

 The experts would come to Miami and meet with Lazaro Gonzalez and the adult
 members of his family at a time yet to be determined at the University of Miami
 Medical School on the Jackson Memorial Hospital campus in Miami. The letter
 tells them not to bring Elian to the meeting.

 As early as Tuesday, the INS will officially transfer custody of the boy to his
 father, and send the Miami relatives another letter specifying a time and place
 for that to occur, probably several days later.

 Reno also said that once the father and son are reunited they would ``be free to
 go'' back to Cuba. If the family agrees on Monday to a transfer, immigration
 authorities said, they would encourage Juan Miguel Gonzalez to live up to his
 promise to stay in the United States during the appeal of a judge's ruling that
 cleared the way for Elian's return to Cuba.

 MOVES CRITICIZED

 At Lazaro Gonzalez's home in Little Havana, surrounded by about 50
 demonstrators, Elian played on a swing set and participated in an Easter egg
 hunt. Outside, the family's lawyers criticized Reno's latest moves.

 Lawyer Manny Diaz complained that Reno's statement didn't mention anything
 about evaluating the child's fears of returning with his father to Cuba. Reno said
 the three experts favored reunification with the father ``as soon as possible.''

 Diaz said: ``Apparently these psychologists have already made up their minds.''

 Reno said the three experts could meet the child if the family members can work
 that out. The three are: Paulina Kernberg, professor of psychiatry at Cornell
 University; Jerry Wiener, professor emeritus of psychiatry at George Washington
 University; and Lourdes Rigual-Lynch, director of mental health services at
 Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

 REINFORCED VIEWS

 Reno refused to discuss exact timing or deadlines, but said her meeting Friday
 morning with Juan Miguel Gonzalez, accompanied by his wife, Nercy, and infant
 son, reinforced her insistence that the reunion happen soon.

 ``He repeated what he has said time and again: He wants his son back,'' Reno
 said.

 No Cuban officials attended the Justice Department meeting. Reno said Gonzalez
 volunteered that ``some people believe he wanted to come to the United States to
 live, and he said, `My feelings are just the opposite.' ''

 The international struggle over Elian is at its heart a family feud, and late Friday
 there were several moves to try to bring family members together.

 At the request of the Miami relatives, Florida's two senators, Democrat Bob
 Graham and Republican Connie Mack, said they would try to arrange a meeting
 at a ``neutral location'' in South Florida or Washington to bring Juan Miguel
 Gonzalez and other relatives together.

 Elian's great-uncle Manuel Gonzalez, who favors Elian's return to Cuba, also
 offered Friday to mediate a family gathering.

 UNCLE TURNED AWAY

 Delfin Gonzalez went to the house in Bethesda, Md., where Juan Miguel is
 staying, but was refused entry.

 ``Go figure,'' Delfin Gonzalez said. ``That has to be that the state security would
 not let him see me. Tomorrow, I'm going back so this can be solved as a family.''

 Cuban officials scoffed at the visit, calling it a publicity stunt.

 A trip to Miami by the father appears unlikely. Reno said: ``Considering the
 tensions in South Florida, he would be reluctant to do so.''

 After leaving the Justice Department, the father went to his attorney Greg Craig's
 downtown D.C. office, where he stayed for about four hours while a gaggle of
 reporters waited outside.

 Gonzalez, his wife and their sleeping baby dashed out of Craig's swanky office
 tower in the back of a black Lincoln sedan. Photographers caught a glimpse, and
 the chase was on.

 He sat grim-faced as reporters knocked on his car window whenever he was
 stuck in D.C. traffic. Nercy Gonzalez giggled at the spectacle.

 Juan Miguel Gonzalez is staying at the split-level home of Fernando Remirez,
 chief diplomat of the Cuban Interests Section. Local police officers had to close
 off streets to handle the crowds outside the house. By Friday, they began
 requesting identification of anyone looking to get past checkpoints, and little girls
 were selling lemonade for 25 cents a cup.

 The scene may end soon. Thom Fassett, general secretary of the General Board
 of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, said his organization and
 Craig's office are scouting the Washington area for a home ``where the family
 could be together and they could live like a family.''

 Herald staff writers Andres Viglucci and Jay Weaver, Herald translator Renato
 Perez and special correspondent Ana Radelat contributed to this report.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald