BY JAY WEAVER AND RONNIE GREENE

 In the tense hours before federal agents stormed the Little Havana house where Elian Gonzalez was residing, the boy's Miami relatives and Attorney General Janet Reno had significant negotiating differences in how, where and when Elian would be reunited with his father, documents released Monday show.

 At 2:59 a.m. Saturday, Reno faxed a final offer that demanded physical custody of Elian be turned over to his father, and a family reunion be in Washington, D.C.

 The document, released for the first time Monday, differs sharply from the family's last written offer, faxed at just before 5 p.m. Friday, which called for a Miami meeting and suggested Elian would stay with both his father and Miami relatives.

 Two hours and 16 minutes before the armed raid, the records show, a wide gulf remained between the two sides. Although attorneys for the Miami relatives say they tried to close the gap, they missed Reno's final deadline.

 The family's proposal, which had the blessings of major Cuban-American leaders in Miami, boiled down to several key terms: The Miami relatives wanted to require that Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, live with them in a temporary residence in Miami-Dade County during the boy's federal court appeal for a political asylum petition.

 The relatives wanted no government officials and lawyers in the picture -- just U.S. marshals to protect the site. And they wanted ''facilitators'' -- probably a psychologist and a priest -- to help the families ''get together and do what is in the best interest of the child.''

 ''We request that you consider the findings and observations of the facilitator in reaching any decision concerning Elian,'' they wrote to Reno.

 The relatives insisted on staying with Elian and his father in the neutral site until all the boy's legal appeals were concluded. They acknowledged that the INS transferred temporary custody of the boy to his father, but didn't directly say they would immediately surrender the boy to his father.

 ''We understand that you have transferred temporary custody of Elian to his father,'' they wrote Reno.

 CUSTODY DEMANDS

 Reno's demands, written 10 hours later, directed that Elian and his relatives go to the Miami Federal Courthouse on Saturday at 3:30 a.m., where he would be in the attorney general's custody. Later Saturday, Elian and his relatives would drive or fly to Washington, not Miami. In Washington, Juan Miguel Gonzalez would take immediate custody of his son.

 Reno directed that Elian's father meet with Lazaro Gonzalez's family and allow mental health experts to evaluate the boy during the transition.

 But Juan Miguel and Elian would live together -- in separate quarters from the Miami relatives while in D.C. And Reno ordered a much shorter living arrangement for the two families -- ''not to exceed one week.''

 Maria Cardona, spokeswoman for the INS, said the Miami relatives still were unwilling to sign off on two essential Justice Department conditions that had been under discussion all night: that they transfer physical custody of Elian to his father before the family meeting, and that the meeting take place in Washington and not Miami.

 ''We thought maybe the family will finally give on these points,'' Cardona said. ''Unfortunately 3 a.m. came and went. It became clear by 4 a.m. this was going nowhere.''

 MISSED DEADLINES

 She said the deadline was just the latest in a series missed by the family.

 Yet mediators -- and the Miami relatives' legal team -- believe an agreement could have been reached.

 ''I do not agree that we weren't close to a settlement,'' lawyer Aaron Podhurst said at a press conference Monday at the University of Miami. Podhurst was drafted by Miami civic leaders just last week to serve as a mediator between Little Havana and Washington.

 Lazaro Gonzalez's lawyers accuse Reno of changing the terms at the last minute, when at 2:59 a.m. she said a reunion in Florida was out of the question and demanded an explicit statement that the family would hand over Elian to the father before they took up temporary residence together.

 ''Up until that point, I thought we had an agreement,'' said Carlos de la Cruz, one of the Gonzalez family's negotiators. ''All of sudden, she [Reno] starts introducing drastically different terms. But even so, we were willing to work with those terms.''

 Reno had never formally agreed to a Florida site, Podhurst acknowledged, but lawyers for the Miami family say they believed she had been open to the suggestion.

 MESSAGE RELAYED

 When Reno insisted the meeting occur in the Washington, D.C., area, negotiators -- including Podhurst and civic leaders de la Cruz and Carlos Saladrigas -- say they believe they could have persuaded the Miami parties to agree. They relayed the message to the legal team huddled in the Little Havana home.

 ''I told them you cannot oppose the attorney general of the United States,'' Podhurst said Monday. ''If she says Washington, it's Washington. If you don't do it, I'm gone.''

 The negotiators say they worked hard and ultimately convinced Lazaro Gonzalez's Miami lawyers to go along with Washington.

 But at the time of the 5:15 a.m. raid, the key family member -- Lazaro Gonzalez -- had not yet signed off on the new site, Podhurst said Monday.

 ''It was true that Lazaro Gonzalez had not yet agreed to that change,'' he said.

 But no one suspected a raid was afoot. ''I took the 4 o'clock demand from Reno to mean that she was getting impatient with us,'' Podhurst said. ''We had moved the ball tremendously.''

 University of Miami President Edward T. Foote II, who helped bring the last minute negotiations together, also believed force could have been avoided. ''We were so close to an agreement.''

 Herald staff writer Joseph Tanfani contributed to this report.