VIENNA, Austria - A senior U.S. envoy will sit eye-to-eye for the first time Saturday with a top Iranian nuclear negotiator, a sharp reversal in U.S. policy that aims to entice Tehran into ending activities that could be used to make atomic weapons.

The move to send Undersecretary of State William Burns to the Geneva nuclear talks has raised the hackles of Washington hardliners who say it signals U.S. weakness. Supporters insist that because both Tehran and the United States want to ease tensions, the move could breathe life into deadlocked nuclear talks.

On the eve of the meeting, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the talks offered hope for a peaceful solution to the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program.

He also expects no quick changes from Iran, which has said "the essentials" - an apparent reference to suspending uranium enrichment - will not be on the table.

"After the Geneva meeting, we must not hope for an improvement, a change of attitude, right away," he said in Paris.

Initially, supporters of the negotiations say, the U.S and its allies could agree to stop pushing for new UN sanctions if Tehran stops expanding its uranium-enrichment capacities.

That could set the stage for fuller negotiations and what the West hopes will be agreement from Tehran to dismantle its enrichment program.

Uranium enrichment can produce both reactor fuel and the core of nuclear warheads.

Iran says it has a right to enrich for peaceful uses and continues expanding its program despite three sets of UN Security Council sanctions sparked by concern that Iran's ultimate goal is to make weapons.

The Americans are part of a six-nation effort - the permanent Security Council members plus Germany - trying to encourage Iran to suspend its nuclear efforts in exchange for economic and political incentives.

The venue of Saturday's talks reflects the potential significance of the meeting.

The Hotel de Ville, or city hall, stands at the top of Geneva's Old Town.

Its neoclassical rooms have hosted important international negotiations since 1872, when an arbitration tribunal ordered Britain to pay the United States $15.5 million in Civil War damages.

It was also the first home of the League of Nations, predecessor of today's United Nations.

The all-day talks, formally led by EU envoy Javier Solana and Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili, start at 11 a.m.

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