BRISTOL City were today hoping to complete the signing of Kalifa Cisse from Championship rivals Reading.

The Royals have accepted a transfer fee, believed to be in the region of £500,000, for the French-born Mali international and he is expected to become City manager Steve Coppell's second signing since he succeeded Gary Johnson at the end of last season.

Cisse was in Bristol yesterday to hold talks with Coppell, the manager who took him to Reading in May 2007.

The pair will meet again this morning to discuss personal terms and, providing an agreement is reached, any deal will then be subject to Cisse passing a medical examination in Bristol.

Coppell will hope to conclude the transfer before City's first-team squad leave for a pre-season tour of Sweden on Monday.

Cisse's impending arrival will increase the likelihood of Paul Hartley returning to his native Scotland. The 33-year-old midfielder has a year remaining on his Ashton Gate contract but has expressed a wish to return to his homeland, where his family still reside.

Hearts manager Jim Jefferies has expressed an interest in Hartley, who spent three years at Tynecastle between 2004-07. But Jefferies has yet to decide whether to follow up an initial inquiry with a formal offer and is refusing to be held to ransom.

"It's not just a case of being interested in somebody, the deal has to be right," said Jefferies. "There are other things to consider. It was reported that Bristol City want a fee for him, so I've had to check that out.

"Then we have to sit down and decide if we are interested in going for Paul. We haven't made that decision yet. We've made one or two inquiries elsewhere, so sometimes you can't take the next step because you don't know what you've got to play with.

"Long before Paul came on the scene we made an inquiry about someone else, but that doesn't look like it will happen. That helps us regarding what we've got to play with to make Paul Hartley or any other player an offer."

City have a surplus of central midfield players and Cisse will provide additional competition for Cole Skuse, Marvin Elliott, Hartley, Lee Johnson and Gavin Williams.

Coppell clearly thinks very highly of the French-born Mali international, who learned his trade in the Toulouse youth set-up. Cisse made his professional bow with Portuguese club GC Estoril in the 2004/05 season and was snapped up quickly by Boavista, where he came to the notice of then-Reading manager Coppell, who splashed out close to £1 million to take the midfielder to the Madjeski Stadium in May 2007.

Blessed with pace and strength and adaptable enough to play either in central midfield or defence, he was expected to make an impact in the Premier League, only to be sent off on his debut and then further hindered by a knee injury.

But he made 11 Premier League starts in 2007/08 and 24 starts for Reading in the Championship the following season, scoring five goals, as the Royals reached the play-offs.

Brendan Rodgers replaced Coppell as manager at the end of that campaign and Cisse remained a regular first-team selection during the first half of last season.

But he fell out of favour after Brian McDermott succeeded Rodgers in December 2009 and did not play a single Championship game after January.

Although he reported back to the Madjeski for pre-season training last week, the Malian is surplus to requirements and McDermott has decided to sell him to help alleviate the Berkshire club's £4 million deficit.

City fans will recall a masterful performance from Cisse, who dominated the centre of midfield and scored a spectacular goal when Reading won 4-1 in a Championship fixture at Ashton Gate in November 2008.