Source: Task force begins Mideast talks

PARIS, France (CNN) -- A task force established by the Madrid Quartet began a two-day meeting in Paris on Thursday to discuss Middle East peace and Palestinian reforms, according to a source close to the meeting.

The talks are taking place in a private Paris location and are considered "low-level working" talks. Taking part are representatives from the quartet -- the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union -- and members of the donor community, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Japan and Norway.

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Organized by the Norwegian government, the "International Task Force on Reform" is scheduled to meet with Palestinian and Israeli delegations. The group is called the Madrid Quartet because the participants met in Madrid, Spain, earlier this year to establish goals and procedures to work together to bring about peace in the Middle East.

There is no official host at the meeting. Topics of discussion were to include civil society, elections, financial accounting, judicial reform, market economics, local government, and ministerial and civil service reform, the source said.

According to Sophie Roy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Paris, the two U.S. delegation members are Elizabeth Cheney, an assistant to the U.S. deputy secretary of state for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and David Satterfield, a deputy assistant secretary for the bureau. Cheney is Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter.

The location of the meeting in a Parisian hotel was being kept secret and reporters were not invited to attend any sort of briefing of the "working meeting," but sources said the group hopes to put out a statement after the end of talks Friday afternoon.

The talks are a part of the support surrounding a recently announced Palestinian Authority plan for a 100-day program of reforms, with a major focus on finance.

Future meetings are planned on several levels.

Ex-mayor urges Palestinian control of some parts of Jerusalem

In another diplomatic development, former Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek is reportedly saying that Palestinians should be given control over some parts of Jerusalem.

"I think there needs to be an arrangement and we need to give something to them and have part for ourselves. It will never be easy," Kollek told Israeli Army Radio.

Kollek, who served as mayor from 1965 to 1993 and has worked for reconciliation between Jewish and Arab residents of the city, is quoted as saying, "Listen, they have been sitting there for so many years and feel it is theirs," he said, referring to the Palestinians.

"You can't achieve calm if you don't give them part of what they want and can control. There's no solution without this."