By NEIL A. LEWIS

          WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 -- Attorney General Janet Reno said
          today that only federal courts had the authority to decide
          whether a 6-year-old boy should be reunited with his father in Cuba but
          said immigration officials had lifted a Friday deadline for his return to
          allow his relatives to appeal in federal court.

          In a letter to lawyers for the boy's relatives in Miami, Ms. Reno said a
          Florida state court had no jurisdiction in the case. The boy, Elián
          González, was rescued at sea clinging to an inner tube last November
          after his mother drowned.

          In her letter, Ms. Reno emphatically reaffirmed her belief that the law
          required that Elián should be returned to his father in Cuba.

          The Justice Department is considering going to court this week to ask a
          federal judge to enforce the immigration ruling in hope of speedily
          resolving a difficult, emotional political and diplomatic problem.

          The Clinton administration has adopted a dual approach to dealing with
          the case.

          On one hand, officials want to show that their ruling giving Elián's father
          the right to make the decision for the boy is the product of
          well-established law that sets a priority on family unification and that they
          are willing to have it tested in federal court. At the same time, the
          administration is moving to end the stalemate quickly, possibly seeking a
          court order that could lead to federal marshals' being sent to fetch Elián
          from the Miami relatives.

          In her letter, Ms. Reno said a separate lawsuit filed in Florida state court
          by the relatives to gain custody of Elián had no bearing on the case,
          which she said could only be decided in federal court. Judge Rosa
          Rodriguez of the Miami-Dade Circuit Court ruled on Monday that Elián
          must remain in the United States until a March 6 hearing.

          Ms. Reno brushed aside that ruling today, saying the state court order
          "has no force or effect" on the Immigration and Naturalization Service's
          decision in the case.

          "The question of who may speak for a 6-year-old child in applying for
          admission or asylum is a matter of federal immigration law," she wrote.

          Justice Department officials and legal analysts said they believed that Ms.
          Reno had the authority to decide as she did because the immigration
          issues under federal jurisdiction took precedence over the custody matter
          before the Florida court.

          Spencer Eig, a lawyer for the Florida relatives, said in a telephone
          interview that the family would soon take up Ms. Reno's invitation to file
          a challenge to the immigration ruling in federal court.

          But he said the relatives would also maintain efforts to have a state court
          award them legal custody of Elián. "We are not removing this case from
          the state court," he said. "We will seek protection for Elián's civil rights in
          federal court as a separate action."

          The lawyers for the Miami relatives will ask the court to reinstate an
          asylum petition on behalf of Elián and argue that immigration officials
          wrongly decided that the boy's father was in a position to make a
          decision in the child's best interests.

          No clear end appears in sight.

          Officials said today's action in lifting the deadline was part of the effort to
          demonstrate that the decision to rule in favor of the father was a product
          of the law. One official said the deep fear behind all the legal maneuvering
          was that the situation would deteriorate to a stage where the federal
          government would have to use marshals to assume physical custody of
          the boy. "We are still hopeful that we can resolve this matter soon," a
          senior official said today.

          Since last week's ruling, hundreds of Cuban-Americans have protested in
          the streets of South Florida. The administration has been sensitive from
          the beginning to the political implications of the case.

          And while reluctant to offend Cuban-American voters, senior officials
          have been eager to end the situation to prevent any worsening of relations
          with Havana.

          Today, several members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, sent
          a letter to Ms. Reno urging her to respect the role of the Florida courts.
          The signers included Representative Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican,
          and Senator Robert G. Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat.

          Mr. Eig said today that the family would abide by any court decision and
          fully understood that it would not be in the best interests of the child to
          have any confrontation with the federal authorities in which Elián would
          be forcibly taken from them. But he left open the possibility that the
          relatives might feel that a state court ruling in their favor on custody might
          trump the federal authorities.

          "I was surprised that Ms. Reno would not respect a state court ruling on
          what is essentially a state matter," he said, adding it was common for
          federal courts to look to state courts to determine a person's status in
          making immigration rulings.

          Ms. Reno today made it clear that she believed otherwise. She also
          offered a long rebuttal to the lawyers' contention that immigration service
          guidelines mandated that Elián should be given a full hearing.