From staff and wire reports

                  MIAMI (CNN) -- Lawyers for 6-year-old Cuban Elian Gonzalez have filed
                  a request with the U.S. government that he be granted political asylum in the
                  United States.

                  At the same time, massive demonstrations continued Friday for a sixth
                  consecutive night in the Cuban capital, Havana.

                  Spencer Eig, one of Elian's lawyers, said Friday, "To protect him from
                  persecution in Cuba, we have filed today an application for political asylum."

                  Roger Bernstein, also an attorney for Elian, said, "We fully anticipate that the
                  Department of Justice will give Elian a full and fair hearing and enable him to
                  assert his claim to asylum."

                  Migration talks still scheduled

                  The custody dispute cast a shadow over U.S.-Cuban migration talks
                  scheduled for Monday in Havana, but both U.S. and Cuban officials said the
                  meeting is expected to continue as planned.

                  Cuba has claimed that Washington has failed to abide by 1994 and 1995
                  migration accords signed to stop a flood of people leaving the island on
                  rickety rafts and inner tubes.

                  Under the agreements, U.S. officials are to send Cubans rescued at sea
                  back to Cuba but allow those who make it ashore to stay. Cuban officials
                  are to prevent people from leaving the communist island illegally.

                  U.S. officials expressed resignation over the political nature of the custody
                  battle. "We are well aware, whatever the outcome, there's going to be a
                  political reaction and we're going to have to take the heat regardless of how
                  the INS (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service) decides the outcome
                  of the case," said U.S. State Department spokesman James Foley.

                  Elian was found clinging to an inner tube in the Atlantic Ocean off of Fort
                  Lauderdale on Thanksgiving Day, having survived a shipwreck that took the
                  life of his mother during an apparent attempt to enter the United States
                  illegally.

                  U.S. authorities placed him with his great-aunt and great-uncle living in
                  Miami, who said they could provide him with a better life in the United
                  States. Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a Cuban resident, has
                  demanded that his son be returned.

                  U.S. senator accuses Castro of interference

                  U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-New Jersey) said Cuban President Fidel
                  Castro was preventing the reunion of father and son by refusing to allow Juan
                  Miguel Gonzalez to travel to Miami to make his claim for the boy. Torricelli
                  said any attempt to circumvent normal custody procedures would be met with
                  a petition to the federal courts to intervene.

                  "By not complying with the laws of the United States, Castro is ultimately
                  making this decision for us," said Torricelli, who later visited Elian at his
                  relatives' house accompanied by leaders of the Cuban American National
                  Foundation exile group.

                  Torricelli's home state ranks second only to Florida in the size of its
                  Cuban-American population.

                  Friday night in Havana, protesters filled the streets in support of Elian's
                  father.

                  "I feel very good marching for Elian because in my opinion I am siding with a
                  just cause," said Kenia Rodriguez.

                  Another protester, Rosa Morera, said, "In those marches there may even be
                  some people who do not agree with the (communist) revolution because this
                  is not a political problem, but a human problem, a father who was deprived
                  of his son."

                    Correspondents Mark Potter and Jeanne Meserve, The Associated Press and Reuters
                                      contributed to this report.