Language choice for default Web page

Hello,

According the HTML specification
(http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/types.html#type-links), if I add the following
meta element to my index.htm page (served by an ISP I don't have control
over)

 <link rel="alternate" lang="fr" href="index_fr.htm" hreflang="fr"/>

shouldn't then the default page be automatically redirected to index_fr.htm
if I point to the root of the web site without specifying a page and if my
browser has its preference settings listing FR as its first choice?

It doesn't seem to work on IE 6 or NN 7. (although the pages have also their
language-content set properly, and the lang attribute set).

- I am mis-interpreting the specification?
- Is it necessary to set something on the server-side as well?
- Are the browsers simply not support it?

In other words: how to get the browser to pick the right language default
page when you don't control the server? (and using only standard HTML).

Thanks
-yves