change input coding

[Uwe Mayer]

Hi,

I have an xml file in utf-16-be format which I want to edit in emacs.
Unfortunately it does not start with a 

<!-- -*- coding: utf-16-be -*- -->

so that emacs would decode and display it properly (which I'd hope).
Currently it looks somewhat like:

^@<^@l^@o^@g^@E^@n ...
for
<logEn ...

I know that it is utf-16-be as I can decode it with Python. How can I load a
utf-16-be file in emacs such that it is displayed propperly?
The set-buffer-file-coding-system only changes the current coding which
doesn't get rid of the ^@ (which are actually 0x00 characters).

Thanks,
Ciao
Uwe