France’s foreign minister sounded a cautious note Thursday on the possibility of tougher punishment for Iran over its nuclear program, saying sanctions should be an option but were not being discussed at an international meeting with Iran in Geneva.

Bernard Kouchner’s remarks at a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev were in line with suggestions that global powers — who fear the military implications of Iran’s nuclear program — want to focus on talks and give Iran an opportunity to end years of defiance.

“We should not already be talking about sanctions, because we must give the Iranians the chance to show today their good will,” Kouchner said during the meeting with Medvedev.

He praised Medvedev for statements last week in which he opened the door to potential Russian support for tougher sanctions.

“I’m no fanatic about sanctions,” Kouchner told Ekho Moskvy radio before the meetings, speaking though an interpreter.

He said sanctions can sometimes be useful, but added, “we are not yet talking about sanctions. In Geneva, we are not talking about sanctions.”

Representatives of the five permanent UN Security Council members — Russia, France, Britain, the United States and China — as well as Germany met in Geneva with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator to press their demands that Iran disclose all its nuclear activities and halt uranium enrichment.

Russia hopes the Geneva meeting will produce a firm agreement for “negotiations that would, as a final result, remove all existing questions relating to the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a joint news conference with Kouchner and the Russian and French defense ministers — Anatoly Serdyukov and Herve Morin — after their meetings.

The Geneva talks ended Thursday with an agreement to take a new stab at overcoming years of mistrust generated by Tehran’s nuclear program and meet again this month for wide-ranging discussions on the two sides’ concerns.

In addition, diplomats said Iran would open its newly disclosed nuclear plant to UN inspectors, probably within a few weeks.

The French visit was previously scheduled and the agenda was broad, but topics included Iran’s nuclear program.

Medvedev said “much depends on Russia and France having a coordinated position” on Iran and other difficult issues.

The meeting came a day after the release of an EU-commissioned report on last year’s war with Georgia, which ended after five days with a cease-fire brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the European Union.

Kouchner and Lavrov made clear that their nations remain divided over Georgia.