From staff and wire reports

                  WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said on
                  Thursday that everyone involved in the international custody dispute over
                  6-year-old Elian Gonzalez should pull together and act quickly in the best
                  interests of the boy.

                  "I think it is so important that people of good will come together, work through
                  the processes of the law as soon as possible, and get the boy home to his father,"
                  Reno said at her weekly news conference on Thursday.

                  Reno supports an Immigration and Naturalization Service finding that Elian's
                  Cuban father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has sole legal authority to speak for the
                  boy, and that Elian should return to Cuba.

                  Elian has stayed with relatives in Miami since the boat that was carrying him
                  and other Cubans trying to reach the United States capsized off Florida. Elian
                  and two others survived; his mother and stepfather were among 10 people who
                  drowned. A vocal Cuban-American community in Miami has been agitating for
                  him to remain in the United States.

                  "The issue is a father who wants his son home and grandparents who want
                  their grandson home, and these are bonds that should be honored," Reno
                  said.

                  A life 'without television cameras'

                  On Wednesday, Reno brushed aside a Florida court ruling that set a March
                  6 hearing on the case. Reno said any challenge to the INS decision to return
                  Elian to Cuba would have to be carried out in federal court.

                  Reno appealed for all involved to get on with the legal process and act
                  quickly so that Elian can get on with his life.

                  "My hope is that people will look at this little boy and get him into a situation
                  where he can live a normal life without television cameras and the world in
                  his face," she said.

                  Reno added that the battle, which has seen reporters camped out in front of
                  Elian's Miami relatives' home for weeks, is prolonging an already traumatic
                  experience for Elian.

                  "There is a little 6-year-old boy who survived one of the most traumatic
                  events that any child could experience -- to lose his mother there in the Gulf
                  Stream, to float for as long as he did, and live to come ashore under the
                  circumstances that he did. We've just got to think about that little boy," Reno
                  said.

                  Family to file federal lawsuit

                  The state court ruled on Monday that Elian stay in the United States while
                  his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, argues for custody. Reno said the ruling
                  has no effect on the INS ruling and the matter should go to federal court.

                  Friday's INS deadline for Elian to go back to his father was postponed. A
                  lawyer for the family, Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, said the family will file a federal
                  lawsuit on January 18 seeking political asylum for the boy.

                 Survivor recounts Elian's last hours with mother

                  Elian's mother gave her coat and last fresh water to her son as they clung to
                  inner tubes in the seas between Florida and Cuba after their boat capsized,
                  caring for him until they drifted apart, a survivor of the shipwreck said
                  Wednesday.

                  "She asked him, 'Are you cold?' and he said, 'Yes, I'm cold, Mama,' so she
                  took off her coat. She gave him water, Cuban migrant Nivaldo Fernandez
                  Ferran told a Miami radio station.

                  "We all fought to save ourselves, but she only wanted to save the life of her
                  son. ... At every moment she looked after the boy until she lost her life," he
                  said.

                  "She just wanted to save her son. 'My son, my son,' she kept saying,"
                  Fernandez told Radio Mambi, a Spanish-language radio station linked to the
                  Cuban exile cause.

                  Elisabet Broton Rodriguez took Elian on the ill-fated trip to reach Florida
                  along with 12 other people on a 17-foot aluminum boat that left Cuba on
                  November 21. The vessel capsized in rough weather November 23.

                  Fernandez said initially the seven people who survived the sinking hung on to
                  three inner tubes and tried to keep together. Eventually, the tubes carrying
                  Fernandez and Elian and his mother separated during the night and they
                  drifted away in the dark.

                  "He was very quiet. He never cried," he said.

                  The three who survived were Elian, then aged 5; Fernandez, 33, and a
                  23-year-old woman.

                  Protests continue in Cuba

                  In Cuba, a highly placed government official told CNN it was "shameless"
                  that the INS would not enforce its order.

                  In Havana, Cubans are keeping up the pressure for Elian's return. Hundreds
                  of health workers rallied on Wednesday. The rally featured impassioned
                  speeches, folk music and children's dance performances.

                  Another, larger protest is planned on Friday, the day Elian was supposed to
                  return to Cuba.

                  In Miami, Cuban exile activists said they would not restart their civil
                  disobedience campaign while the case goes through the legal system.

                     Correspondents Martin Savidge, Mark Potter, The Associated Press and Reuters
                                      contributed to this report.