WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As both the Cuban grandmothers and the
                  Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez lobbied lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the
                  House Judiciary Committee decided not to act on legislation to grant the
                  6-year-old boy U.S. citizenship until a decision regarding his custody is
                  decided in federal and state courts in Miami.

                  Support for the fast-track bill on citizenship for Elian was waning, several
                  members told CNN on Thursday.

                  The decision, made by Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Illinois, puts off the
                  possibility the committee would use a little-known power to block the
                  Immigration and Naturalization Service from deporting Gonzalez before
                  Congress acted on the bill.

                  Under an agreement with the Judiciary Committee, the INS suspends all deportation
                  proceedings against an individual once the committee takes up a private relief bill --
                  a bill designed specifically to assist an individual.

                  The committee has wide latitude on how to proceed with the bill -- from requesting
                  Justice Department reports on the case to holding hearings -- a process that can
                  delay deportation for months.

                  A committee spokesman refused to speculate how the committee would respond
                  after the court decides the custody of Elian but did not rule out the possibility the
                  committee would invoke its right to block the deportation and proceed with the bill.

                 Justice Department seeks to dismiss family's lawsuit

                  U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno again cautioned against ignoring Elian's father's
                  request that his son be returned to him in Cuba.

                  "If we got into a situation where if American children ended up abroad, and
                  American parents wanted them returned, and a foreign country made them a
                  citizen so they did not return, I don't think people in the United States would
                  be very happy about it," Reno said Thursday.

                  The Justice Department filed papers Thursday in Miami federal court, asking
                  a judge to dismiss a case brought by Elian's U.S. relatives, who oppose an
                  INS order that Elian should be returned to his father.

                  In that January 5 decision, the INS had said Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro
                  Gonzalez, lacks standing under federal law to speak for the boy and that
                  only the boy's father can speak for him in immigration matters.

                   And INS said, "The plaintiffs have also failed to meet their burden of
                   showing a substantial threat of irreparable harm. The real harm is that
                   6-year-old Elian is being kept from his father and his father from him."

                   But family attorney Linda Osberg-Braun said that even if the INS wants
                   to honor the father's right to have Elian returned, it cannot ignore the child's
                   rights without a hearing.

                  "Even 6-year-old children have rights in this country and have the right to
                  apply for political asylum," she said.

                  She said the INS' own rules require the agency to hear all the evidence
                  before making a determination. Without such a hearing, she said, "the
                  potential of returning Elian to harm is too great of a risk for this country to
                  take."

                  Later Thursday, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler announced he would
                  move during the week beginning March 6 to schedule such a hearing.

                  He gave lawyers of the Miami family until February 24 to respond to the
                  government's filing Thursday and gave the government until March 2 to
                  respond to that.

                 'Elian is my life'

                  To bolster its case, the government filing included the transcripts of two
                  INS interviews with Elian's father, both conducted in December.

                  "Elian is my life," said Juan Miguel Gonzalez in the interview. "He is my
                  first son. Wherever I went, he went with me."

                  "My son is suffering," he told the INS. "My son needs me and needs his
                  grandparents, and I need him."

                  Gonzalez also accused the Miami relatives of trying to bribe him with offers
                  of money, a house and a car if he agreed to go to the United States.

                  "I could go there with all my family and would be taken care and could have
                  a job if I wanted to work, but with the money offered I would not need to
                  do so," Gonzalez said. "That's when I hung up the telephone."

                  The father, who has spoken to Elian by telephone, told the INS his son has
                  expressed a wish to come back to Cuba. After one such comment, the boy's
                  U.S. relatives started "tapping on the lines and saying that the lines are
                  getting bad and hang up the phone," the father added.

                  The father, denying he is being manipulated by the Cuban government,
                  charges the U.S. relatives "are the ones being coerced by the Cuban
                  community in Miami."

                 Nun: Elian should stay in U.S.

                   In other developments, the nun who hosted the boy's tense Florida reunion
                   with his Cuban grandmothers said she now favors letting him stay in the
                   United States.

                   Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin was to meet in Washington with Reno at an
                   undetermined time, and with Sen. Connie Mack, R-Florida, on Friday
                   morning, said a spokeswoman for Barry University in Miami Shores,
                   where O'Laughlin serves as president.

                  "It is a sin crying to heaven that the child is still subject to the turbulence, the
                  turbulence that is created by political agendas," the Dominican nun said
                  Thursday morning.

                  O'Laughlin had initially said she believed the 6-year-old should be returned
                  to his father, but she changed her mind after seeing the reunion between the
                  boy and his grandmothers.

                  "A meeting that should have been a joyful celebration was tinged with fear
                  and lack of trust," she said. "My heart tells me that I must not be silent about
                  what I observed, and I believe that Elian must be in a secure environment
                  that is free of fear as much as possible.

                  "Therefore, I believe that at this time the best environment for Elian is in the
                  United States."

                 Cuba complains

                  In Cuba, an editorial in Thursday's Communist daily Granma complained
                  that a "counterrevolutionary mafia" is responsible for "the monstrous and
                  traitorous kidnapping."

                  The government complained that "the loving and heroic grandmothers" were
                  treated shabbily and that their reunion with Elian was repeatedly interrupted
                  and abruptly cut short.

                  In response, Sister O'Laughlin said: "The Cuban government ... has said we
                  were not nice to the grandmothers, that we had spies. This is just not true."

                  The nun said that both sides were so mistrustful that she had to show them
                  there was no chance Elian could be snatched away.

                  She showed her visitors that "windows couldn't be opened, that doors
                  couldn't be invaded, that helicopters could not land in fake grass, that there
                  were no disappearing trap doors."

                  She added: "What I experienced yesterday about tangible fear gives me real
                  concern about the future of the child ... and when I look at the real fear I say
                  he would grow to greater freedom of manhood here."

                  She said she would tell officials in Washington "the truth as I experienced it. I
                  don't represent pro-Castro, anti-Castro or INS. I only have the sense that I
                  felt when I blessed that boy when he was leaving here."

                   Correspondents Tony Clark, Kate Snow, Producer Ted Barrett and The Associated Press
                                      contributed to this report.