WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The grandmothers of Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez will meet alone with the 6-year-old boy at a Catholic college in Miami at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) on Wednesday, an official of the U.S. National Council of Churches told Reuters.
Rev. Joan Brown Campbell said the meeting with the boy would take place at the home of the president of the college, a Dominican nun, Jeanne O'Laughlin.
``No one will be in the meeting with Elian except the two grandmothers,'' said Campbell, who has escorted the grandmothers during their visit to the United States to try to bring the boy back to Cuba.
The Miami family of Elian, who has been keeping him since he was found adrift off the coast of Florida after his mother drowned, will bring the boy to the site but will not be allowed to be at the meeting.
Campbell said the grandmothers were excited about seeing their grandson, who is caught up in an international wrangle over his future.
``They will rejoice when they see that little boy and they actually get to touch him,'' Campbell said. ``They welcome the opportunity to engage with him. They are very, very concerned about having to give him up.''
Elian's maternal grandmother Raquel Rodriguez and paternal grandmother Mariela Quintana will return to Washington after the meeting, Campbell said. The grandmothers have been in the United States since Friday trying to gain support to return the boy to his father in Cuba.
The U.S. immigration service has said Elian should be returned to his father in Cuba but relatives in Miami insist he be allowed to stay instead of being sent back to a communist country.
Elian was rescued at sea off Florida two months ago after his mother and 10 other Cubans drowned. He survived two days and nights clinging to an inner-tube in shark-infested waters, hungry and dehydrated.
08:08 01-26-00
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