BY JAY WEAVER AND ANA ACLE

 Fearing Elian Gonzalez might be sent back to Cuba at any moment, lawyers for the boy's Miami relatives revved up their public relations campaign Sunday by accusing the U.S. government of wrongly making them look like ''outlaws'' and by portraying the 6-year-old's father as ''violent'' toward his son and late mother.

 Their verbal attacks, seen by the government and the father's supporters as desperate, 11th-hour measures, previewed what is likely to be the climactic week in the almost five-month battle over whether Elian should stay in the United States or be returned to his father who wants to take him back to Cuba.

 Among the developments:

 As early as today, a federal appellate court in Atlanta may rule on the Miami relatives' request for an emergency order barring the boy's removal from the United States until the same court hears their demand for a political asylum hearing for Elian. Oral arguments on that appeal are set for May 11.

 Law enforcement authorities, including Attorney General Janet Reno, continue to review plans for a tactical operation involving federal agents to remove the boy from the Little Havana home of his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez. He has refused to turn the boy over at a neutral location.

 Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, attended Palm Sunday services with dozens of African-American supporters at the historic Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Later in the day, the CBS show 60 Minutes aired his interview with Dan Rather.

 In Miami, hundreds of Cuban exiles and others continued their vigil outside Lazaro Gonzalez's home in Little Havana, vowing to block any attempt to snatch Elian away.

 The fight over the boy's fate intensified last Thursday when Lazaro Gonzalez defied a written order from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to deliver Elian to Opa-locka Airport so he could be reunited with his father. Immigration officials, irritated by the great-uncle's defiance, revoked his temporary custody of Elian along with the boy's parole allowing him to stay in this country.

 Some of his attorneys appeared on network TV news programs Sunday and accused federal officials of misleading the American people by saying the great-uncle has broken the law.

 ''The truth of the matter is, there is no law that says this child has to be with his father or returned to Cuba,'' attorney Jose Garcia-Pedrosa said on NBC's Meet the Press.

 Afterward, Garcia-Pedrosa said in an interview with The Herald that it is the immigration authorities' responsibility to fetch Elian, and that his great-uncle does not have to take him anywhere.

 ''They're trying to paint us as a bunch of outlaws,'' Garcia-Pedrosa said, referring to Reno and other officials. ''That is completely false, and they ought to stop it.''

 But immigration officials said because they placed Elian's parole in the temporary care of Gonzalez, he must follow their instructions because the boy is only in the United States at the government's discretion.

 INS VIEW

 ''We can set the conditions that dictate where and when they turn over the boy,'' INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said.

 ''Since Thursday, they are in noncompliance of a federal order to abide by those instructions.''

 Also on Sunday, the great-uncle's lawyers amplified their accusations that Juan Miguel Gonzalez abused both his son and his ex-wife, Elisabeth Brotons, who died on a boat journey with the child in late November.

 The goal of this tactic: focus greater public attention on the government's unwillingness to conduct in-person psychological evaluations of Elian before deciding whether to transfer him to his father, said Garcia-Pedrosa.

 ''Why won't the government evaluate his allegations of abuse?'' he said.

 Immigration officials, who interviewed Juan Miguel Gonzalez in Cuba twice in December, say he had a caring, loving relationship with Elian and agreed to reunite them.

 On 60 Minutes, Juan Miguel Gonzalez said the relatives' and lawyers' allegations portraying him as an unfit father were groundless.

 'THEY ARE LIES'

 ''When a child does something mischievous, well you could always spank your own son. But hurt him, I never hurt him and I never hurt his mother either,'' he told CBS' Dan Rather. ''They are lies, totally.''

 Raquel Rodriguez, the mother of Elisabeth Brotons, told a Herald reporter in December that Juan Miguel Gonzalez was nice to her daughter and doted on Elian.

 Meanwhile, outside the relatives' Little Havana home, about 200 supporters chanted ''Queremos ver a Elian'' (We want to see Elian). They got their wish around 3:15 p.m. when Elian and two small boys raced around the yard playing tag.

 A little while later, an old friend of Elian's father stepped forward to suggest that Juan Miguel Gonzalez was not speaking freely on the custody dispute. Eduardo del Valle, 36, said Juan Miguel once told him he wanted to live in the United States.

 ''The person you see on television is a different person than the one I knew,'' said del Valle, who served in the Cuban military with Gonzalez. ''This is a game and I'm speaking now to end it.''

 Del Valle, who has lived in Miami since 1996, added: ''I can't forget his envious eyes when he found out I was coming to this country.''
 

 Herald staff writers Frances Robles and Marika Lynch contributed to this report.