PARIS, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said on Thursday he feared refugee boy Elian Gonzalez could be granted U.S. citizenship and would not be able to return to Cuba.

``I fear that after January 24 he will be made an American citizen by the U.S. Congress and that then he would not be able to return,'' Perez said at a meeting with members of the French employers' association during a three-day visit to Paris.

``The issue of Cuban boy Elian is not yet settled,'' he said.

Elian's father in Cuba and relatives in Florida are competing for custody of the boy who survived a refugee boat sinking. He has become a focal point of hostility between Cuban President Fidel Castro, who wants him to be returned home, and anti-Communist Cuban exiles in Miami who want him to stay.

A Florida family court has ruled that Elian should stay in the United States until a March 6 hearing to determine if he would be harmed by returning to the Communist island.

07:56 01-20-00

Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited.

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