HAVANA -- (AP) -- With the Elian Gonzalez case still a delicate subject in both
 countries, Cuban and U.S. officials Monday wrapped up immigration talks that did
 not end with any accords but were more conciliatory than the last round of
 negotiations.

 The two sides did establish that the legal migrations from Cuba to the United
 States now outpace the number of illegal journeys, said William Brownfield, a
 State Department undersecretary who is heading the U.S. delegation.

 Since 1995, 133,800 Cubans have emigrated legally to the United States, he
 said. He did not have a figure for the number of Cubans who entered the United
 States illegally, but both sides agreed it was significantly lower.

 Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, or parliament, said a
 ``much lower'' number of Cubans have reached the United States illegally in the
 past five years than legally.

 The two men held separate news conferences after the day of talks wound up,
 both speaking in tones much more conciliatory than after the last round of talks in
 New York in September.

 The two countries have been holding periodic talks on migration issues since
 1994, when Cuba briefly lowered its borders and allowed more than 30,000 people
 to leave for the United States on boats and rafts.

 Havana maintains that U.S. policies encourage the Cubans to emigrate illegally,
 particularly the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cubans who reach
 U.S. shores to avoid deportation.

 Washington, meanwhile, alleges that Cuba has put up barriers to ``legal and
 orderly'' migration to the United States -- obstacles that have prompted thousands
 to risk the dangerous passage trip through the Florida Straits on rickety boats.

 The talks resumed last fall following an interruption caused by the international
 custody dispute over Elian Gonzalez, the boy who was rescued in the waters off
 Florida after the boat he was in sank, killing his mother and 10 others.

 Havana blamed the resulting tug-of-war between the child's Cuban father and his
 Miami relatives on the Cuban Adjustment Act, which initially allowed Elian to stay
 in the United States.

 Alarcon, who traditionally heads the Cuban delegation at the talks and who is
 President Fidel Castro's point man on Cuba-U.S. affairs, has said the law
 ``denigrates Cuba'' by giving the impression that all emigrants are escaping
 political persecution.

 Cuban and U.S. officials have expressed concerns about the rise in organized
 smuggling of Cubans, often in flimsy boats. Both sides have separately promised
 to crack down on the practice.