By CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE

The long and bitter battle for custody of a precocious, blue-eyed girl ended Tuesday afternoon where it began -- in a Miami courthouse where a juvenile court judge approved a negotiated settlement between the Cuban birth father and Coral Gables foster parents wishing to raise the girl.

The 5-year-old girl's birth father, Rafael Izquierdo, and her longtime foster dad, Joe Cubas, embraced briefly in a sixth-floor courtroom after Miam-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen approved the settlement and formally closed the state's case against Izquierdo.

Cohen, who has presided over the acrimonious dispute for almost two years, thanked the Cubases, Izquierdo, two therapists who worked with the girl and a host of lawyers for their ``service to the community.''

''I am proud of you,'' Cohen said to Izquierdo. ``I think this was the right thing to do. I know the process was extremely difficult. But what you agreed to is in the best interests of [your daughter]. I think this is a good resolution. I think it is a fair resolution.''

Cohen also thanked Cubas and his wife, Maria, who did not attend the hearing -- recalling that the couple had promised to ''show respect'' for the judicial process, and had kept their promise.

''The community has taken a lot of cues from your grace, and the way you handled yourself,'' Cohen said, addressing Cubas. ``I know you and your wife gave these children a safe, loving and nurturing home.''

Cohen called the hearing to decide whether to bless the agreement between the Department of Children & Families, the Guardian-ad-Litem Program, birth father Rafael Izquierdo and foster parents Joe and Maria Cubas, who have cared for the little girl much of the last two years.

Under the terms of the settlement, Izquierdo will have sole custody over his daughter, but will be required to remain in the United States until at least May 2010. The Cubases will receive about 52 days each year of visits with the girl, either during alternating weekends or in larger chunks if Izquierdo moves outside of South Florida.

If Izquierdo remains in the U.S. past May 2010 -- or if he chooses to declare residency -- the Cubases' visits with the girl can continue until August 2012, when the little girl's older brother reaches age 18. The Cubases adopted the girl's brother, now 13, after the boy's father relinquished custody. The boy has a different father.

The ordeal began in March 2005 when Elena Pérez, the children's mother, flew to Miami after winning a Cuban lottery that awards U.S. visas. The little girl was 2; her brother was 11.

The following December -- facing financial hardship, and having been abandoned by a man she married in Cuba who accompanied her to the U.S. -- Perez slashed her wrists with a kitchen knife after calling police for help. DCF investigators took custody of the two children.

On Dec. 23, 2005, Joe Cubas met the two children while handing out presents dressed as Santa at a Christmas party. Five months later, the Cubases agreed to take care of the two children after state caseworkers formally notifyed Izquierdo that his daughter was in state care.

Izquierdo applied for a visa to come to Miami in July 2006, but, facing resistance from the U.S. State Department, was not able to arrive until May 2007. He began supervised visits with the little girl almost immediately, and the court battles between him, the Cubases and the state began.

DCF and guardian program charged in a formal petition that Izquierdo was unfit to raise his daughter because he had effectively abandoned and neglected her by allowing her to migrate with a mother he should have known was mentally ill. His neglect of his daughter, they said, continued when he failed to take any interest in her life once she arrived in Miami.

Following a monthlong trial that began in August, Cohen ruled that Izquierdo was a fit father, though she expressed concerns that he waited too long to seek her return, and probably lied several times during his three-day testimony.

DCF appealed her ruling, which halted what was to be the second phase of the litigation: a second trial in which DCF, the guardian program and the Cubases sought to prove that the little girl would be ''endangered'' by a reunification with her dad.

They claimed the girl had formed a bond with her brother and the Cubases, and separating her from her new family would cause deep and lasting damage to her emotionally - perhaps even making it impossible for her to form future emotional bonds.

Izquierdo's lawyers contend that the girl has forged a new bond with her father, who, they say, has a fundamental right to raise his daughter if he isn't guilty of abusing, neglecting or abandoning her.

As the dispute stalled in court, Cohen encouraged the parties to negotiate, and an agreement was reached last week.