BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

 The battle over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez took a big step toward resolution
 Monday -- and then another one backward -- after a U.S. immigration official
 finally met in Cuba with the boy's father to obtain documents establishing his
 paternity.

 A round of confusion ensued after the meeting because the father apparently
 misunderstood the visitor from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
 and declared that the United States was prepared to return the boy to his
 custody.

 Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who had previously refused to meet with U.S. officials until
 they set a date for the boy's return, turned over a birth certificate, school report
 cards and other documents showing he is Elian's father.

 The documents will allow the INS to rule on who can speak for the boy, and
 whether he should stay in Miami or return to Cuba.

 But the 31-year-old national park employee told reporters after the meeting that
 the INS official and an accompanying U.S. diplomat assured him Elian would be
 returned to Cuba.

 ``They agree that the child should be returned as soon as possible, a clearly
 elated Gonzalez announced after the two Americans left the one-hour meeting at
 his home in Cardenas, 85 miles east of Havana.

 Chagrined U.S. officials rushed to deny the father's claim -- and squash the
 immediate accusations by Cuban exiles in South Florida that the Clinton
 administration had cut a secret deal with Havana to return the boy.

 ``The father apparently misunderstands the INS procedures. The decision will be
 made by the appropriate authorities in the United States, said a State Department
 official in Washington.

 The U.S. visitors ``may have reassured him that they would expedite the process,
 not the return,'' said one U.S. diplomat in Havana. ``We certainly didn't need this
 confusion right now.

 U.S. officials said they only hope President Fidel Castro and his government
 understand that the father made a mistake -- and not blame Washington for failing
 to keep a ``promise'' that was never made.

 EARLY MEETING

 The two U.S. officials met with Gonzalez and Elian's paternal grandparents at 7
 a.m. to avoid drawing a crowd. No Cuban government representatives were
 present at the ``dignified'' talks, one U.S. official said.

 Relatives taking care of the boy in Miami have vowed to appeal any INS decision
 to return the boy to Cuba, a legal process that could last weeks and even
 months.

 The snarl over Gonzalez's statement threatened to undermine U.S.-Cuba
 migration talks in Havana on Monday that Cuban officials had earlier threatened to
 boycott unless Elian was returned to his father.

 Ricardo Alarcon, Cuba's chief envoy to the talks and president of the legislative
 National Assembly, expressed disappointment afterward that there had been ``no
 agreement at all'' on Havana's insistence that the United States stop accepting all
 illegal Cuban migrants.

 U.S. PLEASED

 But U.S. officials said they were pleased with the latest round of the twice-yearly
 talks held to review progress in fulfilling the requirements of U.S.-Cuba accords
 signed in 1994 and 1995.

 ``They have not walked out, and neither have we, said one U.S. Interests Section
 official in Havana.

 Despite the importance of the talks, the meeting with Gonzalez and his
 subsequent comments became the focus of attention on both sides of the Florida
 Straits.

 In Florida, news of Gonzalez's erroneous announcement reached Elian's Miami
 family via cell phone while they were on the E.T. ride at Universal Studios in
 Orlando. Elian's great uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, decided to keep the news from the
 rest of the family for as long as he could.

 ``He's crushed,'' family spokesman Roberto Curbelo said of Lazaro. ``He sees the
 kid has a future here. The kid is seeing what it's like to live in a free country. He
 doesn't want to let him go.''

 After he was told of the father's mistake, Curbelo said: ``Thank God. Let me run
 and tell the family.''

 ROLLICKING DAY

 Elian spent a rollicking day with his cousins, aunts and uncles at Universal
 Studios, dancing, clapping and singing at the top of his voice during the Barney
 Show. Later, the huge purple and green dinosaur hugged and nuzzled him. Elian
 responded with a big kiss to the center of the furry creature's nose.

 Elian's mother and stepfather and nine other Cubans drowned when their boat
 sank during a trip to South Florida. He was found floating on an inner tube off the
 coast near Fort Lauderdale and was turned over to relatives in Miami.

 But the child who floated one full day in the Florida Straits was almost too short
 to ride one attraction at Universal Studios, Back to the Future.

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald