In a move designed to expedite any appeals, the Clinton administration has officially joined the Miami court battle by relatives of three Brothers to the Rescue pilots killed by Cuba, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Government lawyers, who had previously filed three ``statements of interest,'' officially joined the case Wednesday ``not on one side or the other but simply because the case has serious implications for U.S. policies and we may need to appeal,'' said a U.S. official in Washington who requested anonymity.

U.S. District Court Judge James Lawrence King is expected to rule next week in the case of the relatives of three of the four Brothers pilots shot down and killed by Cuban MiGs in 1996.

King awarded the relatives $187 million in damages against the Cuban government and air force, but Havana refused to pay. King later allowed the relatives' lawyers to issue writs of garnishment against U.S. telephone firms for the money they pay Havana for U.S.-Cuba telephone links.

The phone companies have challenged the writs, but Cuba last week cut off all the circuits of the firms that withheld their payments. The firms rerouted calls to Cuba and the cutoff has not significantly affected traffic.

U.S. government lawyers have argued before King against seizing the telephone company payments, saying they are legally protected and their seizure would erode the U.S. policy of promoting people-to-people contacts between Cuba and the United States.