HAVANA -- (AFP) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro sounded a note of triumph at the
 biggest May Day rally in years here Monday, telling hundreds of thousands of participants
 that Cuba had emerged a "moral giant'' from the Elian Gonzalez saga.

 Castro, who has been an infrequent speaker at the May Day rally in recent years, turned
 up in military fatigues and tennis shoes to tell the crowd that Cuba had won a battle of
 ideas waged over the 6-year-old castaway.

 "It would be wise for American leaders present and future to understand that David
 has grown up, that he has transformed himself into a moral giant who no longer
 throws stones with his slingshot but throws out messages, examples and ideas,'' said
 Castro, wearing an Elian Gonzalez T-shirt tucked under his tunic.

 Against those ideas, the United States, that "big Goliath of finance, of colossal wealth
 and nuclear weapons as well as world power . . . can do nothing,'' Castro said in his
 50-minute speech.

 Castro, who orchestrated a massive campaign of protests for the return of Elian to
 his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, said Cuba had conducted the whole affair
 without violence.

 "Not a pane of glass on the U.S. Interests Section has been broken, no stone
 has been thrown against it, no U.S. official or U.S. visitor has been bothered,''
 Castro said. "No U.S. flag has been trampled or burned in the streets.''

 As the crowd roared, Castro spoke by cellular telephone to Juan Miguel, who has
 been reunited with his son at a rural retreat in Maryland where he is awaiting the
 outcome of an asylum appeal on behalf of the boy's Miami relatives.

 He warned that the battle for the return of Elian was not over and said there was
 "a real risk'' that the Atlanta appeals court could rule May 11 that Elian has the
 right to U.S. asylum.