WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is changing course on Iran in its final months, even floating a proposal to open a de facto U.S. Embassy in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

If the Iranians agree, U.S. diplomats would go to Iran for the first time in nearly 30 years since the countries broke relations after the seizure of 52 U.S. hostages during 1979 Islamic revolution.

The hope is that engagement can jolt a stagnant effort to resolve worries about Tehran's disputed nuclear program where war drums could not.

The U.S. has shifted from its long-standing confrontational policy of isolating Iran in favor of a diplomatic approach that resembles the direction taken to get North Korea to give up its atomic arms.

This weekend, the administration will, for the first time, send a senior envoy to talks with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator. Before setting up the Saturday meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, the U.S. had insisted it would not speak with the Iranians until they ended the suspect activities.

Neither sending an envoy to Geneva nor setting up a U.S. presence in Tehran can guarantee results. But officials who have championed these separate but parallel drives say new, creative ideas must be tried if the threat posed by Iran is to be contained or eliminated by the end of Bush's second term in January.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her new third-in-command at the State Department, William Burns, have been among the most vocal proponents of the new direction, officials say. Burns will represent the U.S. at Saturday's meeting with Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva.

'People to people'

Rice and Burns have pushed for the administration to open an "interest section" in Tehran, similar to the one it operates in Havana, that would allow for greater U.S. outreach to the Iranian people.

British newspaper The Guardian reported on its Web site Thursday that the decision to open an interests section is a done deal in Washington and awaits Iranian consent.

A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, refused to confirm the report . But he said, "We want to have people-to-people contact with the Iranian people."

Since the AP made the proposal public in June, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said his government would be willing to consider a request from the United States to establish a diplomatic outpost in Tehran.

Rice said Thursday the administration's decision to send Burns to the Geneva talks proves that the United States is committed to diplomacy and shows that the world is united in trying to deal with Iran's nuclear program. That program, along with recent military muscle flexing in the Persian Gulf, has spiked tensions and spooked oil markets.

"The point that we're making is the United States is firmly behind this diplomacy, firmly behind and unified with our allies and hopefully the Iranians will take that message," she told reporters. "It's going to be very clear to them" that the group of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and Germany, and other countries are united.

The six-nation group has offered Iran incentives to halt activities that could lead the development of nuclear weapons. If Iran declines the offer, as it has done with previous ones, it will face new penalties.

Officials say Burns will be listening, not negotiating, at the meeting that they insist is a "one-time event." But his mere presence signals a significant change in Bush's approach toward Iran, a charter member, along with Iraq and North Korea, of what he termed the "axis of evil" in 2002.

The White House insists it will not negotiate with Iran as it has with North Korea until Tehran halts enriching and reprocessing uranium.

Iran has rebuffed the attempt to persuade it to stop enrichment and reprocessing, which can produce the key ingredient for atomic weapons, and insists its nuclear program is designed only to produce power. Others, particularly the United States and Israel, maintain it is a cover for weapons development.

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