By Elaine Monaghan
WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The United States is making contingency plans to send a 6-year-old Cuban boy at the centre of an international custody battle back to the Communist-ruled island, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.
The plans included asking Cuba to grant a visa to enable the father of Elian Gonzalez to come to Miami, where he is living with relatives, to collect him, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
``They said: 'We'll think about it','' he added.
The boy was rescued at sea on Nov. 25 after a boat full of illegal Cuban migrants capsized. His mother, who was divorced from his father in Cuba, drowned.
The case has sparked mass protests in Cuba to ``save Elian'' and stirred passions in the Cuban-American exile community. the two sides accuse each other of using the boy as a political football.
In the end U.S. immigration officials have to decide what to do with the child, whose rights to asylum as an exile from Washington's arch-enemy are highly complex.
The U.S. official made clear that a decision to send the child back to Cuba was being given serious consideration but he stressed a conclusion had not yet been reached.
``We sat back and said: 'If we make a final decision which would result in Elian going home, what would be the best way for him to go home?' And our feeling was that the best way would be for his father to come and get him,'' he said.
That way, the Cuban-American community could also judge for itself whether the father was ``under duress'' or speaking from the heart when he said he wanted his son home.
INS EXPECTED TO ANNOUNCE DECISION SOON
State Department spokesman James Rubin said on Tuesday he expected a decision from the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) soon.
``We would welcome an application for a non-immigrant visa from Elian's father at any time in this process, and we have informed the Cuban government of that,'' he added.
The INS is due to conduct an official interview with the boy and his legal representatives on Jan. 21, to decide his fate -- though it can reach a decision at any time.
``We will continue to work toward coming to a decision quickly and carefully,'' INS spokesman Russ Bergeron said.
The U.S. National Council of Churches has sent officials to meet the father in Cardenas east of Havana and to offer itself as a channel for Elian's eventual repatriation.
They concluded the child belonged with his family in Cuba.
``Our officials met both sets of grandparents and aunts and uncles -- including the parents of his mother,'' Roy Lloyd, Broadcast News Director for the council, told Reuters.
``The maternal grandmother says this boy needs to be raised by his father. My colleagues were convinced it was no set-up. There were no government people around. They had lunch and were convinced of their sincerity,'' he added.
15:22 01-04-00
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