MOSCOW — Russian and U.S. officials gave birthday gifts Friday to the 8-year-old boy who was returned to Russia by his adoptive American mother, as Russia sent conflicting signals about whether all adoptions to the United States were now suspended.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday that adoption of Russian children by U.S. families had been suspended after Artyom Savelyev was sent unaccompanied to Moscow last week with a note from his adoptive mother in Tennessee saying he had psychological problems and was violent. People who have spent time with the boy in Moscow say he seems like a happy child.

Russian officials have provided little clarification about the hundreds of U.S. adoptions now in progress.

The Kremlin children's rights ombudsman said Friday that potential parents may still prepare the paperwork for adoptions during the freeze, but courts will not hear U.S. adoption cases.

The Education and Science Ministry, which oversees international adoptions, insisted, however, that it had received no formal instructions to freeze adoptions and it was up to the courts to decide.

David Siefkin, press attache at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, said the United States has not received official notification of a freeze either.

"A lot of American families are now concerned," he said. "We hope the process will keep going, especially for people who applied before and have been waiting for a long time."

A U.S. delegation is flying to Moscow for talks Monday and Tuesday to address Russian concerns and hammer out an accord that would allow the placement of Russian children to go ahead, Siefkin said.

He was with a consular officer who visited Artyom on Friday, his eighth birthday, which he celebrated in the Moscow hospital where was taken for tests upon his arrival. The consular officer brought Artyom presents and "reported that he was laughing and in good spirits," an embassy statement said.

Pavel Astakhov, the children's rights ombudsman, who gave the boy flowers, a cake and a toy car, also said he found the boy happy but running a fever from all the excitement.

Astakhov said several Russian families have already offered to adopt Artyom. "As soon as he gets well, we'll get him out of the hospital and into a foster family," he told reporters.