Children march for Elian

Elian and his father (centre) are awaiting court decision

Tens of thousands of children have marched in the Cuban capital, Havana, to demand the immediate return from the United States of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez.

The crowd, ranging from six-year-olds to teenagers, filed past the US mission in Cuba, chanting "Free Elian".

Prensa Latina news agency reported that the march by estimated 160,000 children had been "an unprecedented event in the history of the Cuban Revolution."

Fidel Castro has called for protests

The protest was organised by the Cuban Government and is the latest in six months of demonstrations to call for the boy to come home.

Cuba's leader Fidel Castro urged children to send a message "to Washington and around the world that no one has the right to kidnap or detain a Cuban child".

About 150,000 children had been expected to march last week, but the demonstration was cancelled due to heavy rain.

The march

Reports say that the children were brought to the US mission by a special bus service.

At the height of attention: Elian has finally been reunited with his father

"Free Elian! Down with the Cuban Adjustment Act!" the boys and girls in their school uniforms chanted, referring to a US law that allows Cubans who reach American soil to stay.

The majority of the children were from Havana but some had come from Matanzas province, where Elian and his family lived.

In his Sunday television address, Mr Castro called upon the nation's children to protest, but "not throw a single ball of rags or paper" at the US mission.

He offered the children his advice as "an old man who used to be a boy and an old guerrilla fighter".

The Cuban Government has organised numerous mass protests around the Elian case.

Long wait

Elian Gonzalez, who was rescued off the coast of Florida in November after his mother drowned during her sea journey to the United States, has now spent over six months in the US.

Elian's grandmothers were among the protesters during a recent march

The legal battle between his Miami relatives and his Cuban father neared the end when the boy was reunited with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

Elian's Miami relatives had been seeking a political asylum hearing for the child.

A week ago, a federal court in Atlanta supported Mr Gonzalez's claim that only he has the right to speak for his son.

The father, who was reunited with Elian on 22 April, wants to return with his son to Cuba, but is temporarily prevented by the US authorities from doing so.

US Attorney General Janet Reno stated that Elian could not leave the US until 21 June, to give his Miami relatives a chance to appeal against the latest ruling.