Government Seeks to Take Final Steps in Reuniting Cuban Child With Father

          By EDWARD WONG

           Federal officials negotiated this afternoon with the Miami relatives
          of Elián González over a meeting place where experts in child psychology and
          the relatives could work out how best to transfer custody of the boy to his father,
          who flew from Cuba to the United States last week to claim his son.

          The two psychiatrists and one psychologist were selected by Attorney
          General Janet Reno. With President Clinton's support, she has said she wants
          to see the 6-year-old boy returned sometime this week to his father, Juan
          Miguel González, who is staying at a Cuban diplomat's home in a Maryland
          suburb of Washington, D.C.

          In Miami, the mental health experts were awaiting Elian's great-uncle, Lázaro
          González, today at a hospital on the campus of the University of Miami. The
          meeting was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m., but family members still had not
          arrived by 4:30 p.m.

          Instead, Mr. Gonzalez sent a letter to the Immigration and Naturalization Service
          requesting that the meeting take place at Mercy Hospital, where his daughter,
          Marisleysis González is being treated for exhaustion. She has been Elián's primary
          caretaker.

          "We're looking logistically and security-wise to see if we can do it," said
          Maria Cardona, a spokeswoman for the I.N.S, in a telephone interview. "Our
          goal is still to have this meeting happen this afternoon."

          The specialists scheduled to meet with Elián's great-uncle are Paulina M.
          Kernberg, a former director of child and adolescent services at the Westchester
          Division of New York-Presbyerian Hospital; Lourdes Rigual-Lunch, a
          clinical psychologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at the Albert
          Einstein College of Medicine in New York; and James M. Wiener, a
          professor emeritus in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George
          Washington University in Washington, D.C.

          Last Friday, federal officials gave Juan Miguel González custody of his son
          in name, but the two are still separated by 900 miles and the protests of
          Cuban-Americans who don't want to see the boy returned to Cuba and the
          Communist regime of President Fidel Castro.

          "We would hope that we would be able to set up something so that Elián
          will not have to be carried through a throng of people in Miami," Eric
          Holder, a deputy attorney general, said this morning on CBS's "The Early
          Show."

          Outside Elián's Miami home, about 50 Cuban-American protestors
          gathered by mid-afternoon. They waved Cuban flags and held signs with
          slogans like "Pray for Elián." Some have vowed to die before letting
          federal officials take the boy, and a candlelight vigil was scheduled to
          take place tonight.

          The mayors from the city of Miami and surrounding Dade County, Joe
          Carollo and Alex Penelas, said they would meet with Ms. Reno in
          Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to try to convince her to give Elián's
          relatives a 30-day period for gradually transferring custody.

          Fishermen discovered the 6-year-old boy floating in an inner tube off the
          Florida coast on Nov. 25.

          Elián was one of three survivors left from a boat that capsized, drowning
          his mother and 10 other Cuban refugees.

          Immigration and Naturalization Service officials gave Elián temporary
          residency status and placed him in the care of his great-uncle.

          Although the father, who was divorced from the boy's mother, has
          pleaded with the Miami relatives to return Elián to him, the great-uncle,
          Lázaro González, virulently opposes the Castro regime, and has not given
          any indication of handing the boy over.

          The great-uncle is appealing to a federal court in Atlanta to make the
          I.N.S. grant Elián an asylum hearing. Lawyers for both sides are
          expected to file briefs on Tuesday, and the court said it would hear oral
          arguments during the week of May 8.

          Juan Miguel González has not promised that he would remain in this
          country through the appeals process if he is first given custody of Elián.
          Mr. Holder said the Justice Department is trying to persuade Mr.
          González to make such a commitment.

          Mr. González, who arrived last week with his current wife and their
          6-month-old son, is staying at the home in Bethesda, Maryland, of
          Fernando Remirez de Estenoz, the head diplomat of the Cuban interests
          section.

          The father has said that if he and Elián stay through the appeals process,
          he wants the State Department to give entry visas to other Cubans who
          would wait with him in the United States. They include Elián's teachers,
          classmates and close relatives, as well as doctors and nurses.

          The State Department granted a total of six visas last week, but Mr.
          González and Mr. Castro would like to see 21 more visas given out.