The Washington Post reported today that Attorney General Janet Reno has decided to
remove Elian from his great-uncle's home in Miami and has instructed federal law enforcement
officials to determine the best time to do so. The report quoted unidentified government officials
as saying they expected to move by the middle of next week.

 Asked about the report, Justice Department spokeswoman Carole Florman said Reno
remained open to a voluntary settlement, but declined to discuss whether she has made any
decision about forcibly removing the boy. She said, ''For obvious reasons, we've always said
we wouldn't discuss a law enforcement action in advance.''

 The New York Times, quoting government officials it did not name, said today that law
enforcement action is now all but certain and would be carried out by immigration agents
and federal marshals who have been quietly arriving in Miami in recent days.

 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. On Thursday, President Bill Clinton made
his strongest statement yet in the case, saying there is ``no conceivable argument''
against promptly reuniting the boy with his father.

 The president spoke a day after an appellate court barred the boy's immediate
removal from the country pending resolution of an appeal by Elian's Miami
relatives -- an order that Clinton said should dispose of the relatives' objections
that the boy might be taken to Cuba by his father before they could be heard in
court.

 The court left the decision on where the boy should live during the appeal up to
 the government.

 ``I think he should be reunited with his father. That is the law, and the main
 argument of the family in Miami for not doing so has now been removed,'' Clinton
 said to reporters at the White House.

 In response to Clinton's remarks, Delfin Gonzalez, Elian's great-uncle in Miami,
 shrugged and said, ``They are determined to return the boy to Cuba, and we're
 determined not to turn him in.''

 Clinton's comments came in response to a question about a plea made Thursday
 by Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

 Addressing the American public, Gonzalez made an impromptu and emotional
 statement urging government action.

 ``I send this message, right to the president of this country, the attorney general
 of this country, that I be reunited with my son,'' Gonzalez told reporters outside
 the suburban Washington home of Cuba's top U.S. envoy, where he has been
 staying. ``I love my son very much. I need my son at my side . . . Please, please
 help me.''

 Clinton's message capped a day in which U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
 came under increasing public pressure to end the nearly five-month standoff in
 Little Havana between the government and Elian's relatives.

 PLOTTING STRATEGY

 Reno spent much of the day Thursday huddled with key aides deciding how to
 proceed in light of Wednesday's court decision, which called into question the
 government's decision to deny Elian an asylum hearing on the presumption that
 he is too young -- at 6 -- to apply for it over the objections of his father.

 A Justice Department official said a plan for forcible removal was among the
 options discussed at the meeting, but said Reno had made no final decision by
 Thursday evening.

 ``We've been laying the ground already for an enforcement action plan. We will be
 putting that into action, but she has not given the green light to do it at a certain
 time,'' said the official, who requested anonymity. ``That's not to say it can't
 happen in five minutes, or that it can't happen in an hour.''

 According to some news reports, Clinton has chided Reno for not ending the
 standoff sooner. Clinton and Reno talked for 45 minutes on a flight back from a
 memorial for the Oklahoma City bombing victims Wednesday night, Justice
 Department officials said.

 NEUTRAL GROUND

 Bolstered by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Elian's Miami
 relatives on Thursday sought to revive a proposal to have the two warring sides of
 the family meet on neutral ground. But they remained unwilling to turn over Elian
 to his father first, a condition on which Juan Miguel Gonzalez has insisted.

 ``I think that the concept of having this family do what so many families do at this
 time of year -- the Jewish Passover, the Christian Easter and so forth -- is a very
 important step and should take place as soon as possible, but without this
 precondition of having to agree that the boy goes with the father. That's not
 appropriate,'' said Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, an attorney for the Miami relatives.

 ``What should happen is, the family should get together and do what families do
 at this time of year -- have dinner together, you know, spend time together. We
 can't make it happen. We can only suggest that it happens. I think the real
 problem is, is the Cuban government prepared to allow Juan Miguel to attend a
 reunion like that, a meeting in which there's no supervision or control by the
 Cuban government?''

 In Fort Lee, N.J., Vice President Al Gore endorsed the idea of a meeting, urging
 Elian's relatives to get together ``without government officials or lawyers.''

 But Gregory Craig, Juan Miguel Gonzalez's U.S. lawyer, met the relatives' offer
 with skepticism, noting that the relatives have continued to defy a government
 order to surrender the boy.

 ``The point of all that is, they still decline to turn over the boy to his father,'' Craig
 told CNN. ``We could go to Miami and knock on the door and we could come out
 without the boy. That's unacceptable to us. The central issue is whether this boy
 is going to be restored to his father.''

 `HELP ME'

 Later in the day, Juan Miguel Gonzalez spoke to reporters for the first time in two
 weeks outside the Maryland home of Fernando Remirez, Cuba's top diplomat
 here. He asked Americans to write or phone the president and Reno to urge them
 to act.

 Speaking without notes, he said: ``I've come here because they've promised me
 I'd be reunited with my son Elian. Two weeks have passed. I've always had the
 understanding that the United States is a country of laws.

 ``Please, all the people with feelings that really know a father's love for his son,
 help me and don't let them continue putting politics over this. This is simply a
 father and son. Help me. Thank you.''

 RENO PRESSURED?

 Administration officials, meanwhile, declined to discuss reports that Clinton was
 putting pressure on Reno to act.

 Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said that on the flight
 from Oklahoma City, Reno updated Clinton on the appeals court's ruling.

 ``He offered his opinions on the matter and then he reaffirmed his support for her
 on this -- and that he agreed with her position that she's taken and her handling of
 it,'' Florman said.

 White House press secretary Joe Lockhart also declined to go into details during
 a morning press briefing.

 ``What I will say is the president believes the attorney general has moved forward
 in a deliberate way, which he believes is appropriate, allowing all sides their
 chance to have their say, both to the attorney general and in the court of law, and
 he believes that that is the right way to do this,'' Lockhart said.

 Herald staff writers Karen Branch, Frank Davies, Carol Rosenberg, Herald writer
 Mireidy Fernandez and Herald wire services contributed to this report.