US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
on Thursday flew into Pakistan for crunch talks with the leadership after calling on Islamabad to "do more".
She touched down at the Chaklala military airbase shortly after 7:00pm (1400 GMT) and was expected to head straight into a first round of meetings, said a correspondent travelling with her.
Earlier Hillary Clinton demanded that Pakistan dismantle Taliban safe havens, stepping up the pressure on Islamabad as American troops pressed a major offensive along the border.
She warned the Taliban to be part of a peaceful future or face a continuing assault, but urged Islamabad to play a "constructive" role in bringing militants to negotiations aimed at ending the 10-year war in Afghanistan.
"And now it's a question as to how much cooperation Pakistanis will provide in going after those safe havens," she said.
"We intend to push the Pakistanis very hard as to what they are willing and able to do with us... to remove the safe havens and the continuing threats across the border to Afghans," said Clinton.
She warned militants that "we are going to seek you in your safe havens" on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border and confirmed a US operation against the hardline Haqqani network it blames for some of the worst war attacks.
"There was a major military operation inside Afghanistan in recent days that has been rounding up and eliminating Haqqani operatives on this side of the border," Clinton told reporters in a leafy plaza of Karzai's palace.
She later flew into Pakistan, where she was to be joined by CIA chief David Petraeus and top US military officer Martin Dempsey for her talks.
But policy makers in Islamabad fundamentally disagree with US strategy in Afghanistan, believing military options are limited and that now is the time to press for a comprehensive reconciliation ahead of a NATO withdrawal in 2014.
It is Clinton's first visit to the region since a siege of the US embassy in Kabul and a truck bombing on a NATO outpost that wounded 77 Americans last month.
Washington blamed the attacks on the Haqqanis, who have a haven in Pakistan.
Dempsey's predecessor Admiral Mike Mullen called the Haqqani network the "veritable arm" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and accused Pakistani spies of being involved in the embassy siege, dramatically worsening ties.
US commanders say the Haqqanis are their most potent enemy in eastern Afghanistan and increasingly capable of launching high-profile attacks in Kabul. It is an Afghan Taliban faction, loyal to Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
In what Pakistanis are likely to interpret as a contradiction, Clinton said her talks will focus on "how to increase pressure on the safe havens" while urging Pakistan to support efforts at negotiations.
"We believe that they can play either a constructive or a destructive role in helping to bring into talks those with whom the Afghans themselves must sit across the table and hammer out a negotiated settlement," she said.
"We will be looking to the Pakistanis to take the lead because the terrorists operating outside of Pakistan pose a threat to Pakistanis, as well as to Afghans and others," she said.
Karzai spoke of "shifting the focus" of the peace effort to Pakistan, saying that establishments there control to a "very, very great extent" the Taliban.
Pakistani security officials say privately that contacts are maintained with insurgent groups to facilitate any eventual settlement in Afghanistan -- a possibility that would be squandered if it launched any new offensive.
Islamabad argues that it has already made tremendous sacrifices, losing 3,000 soldiers and thousands of civilians in bomb attacks on its soil, and that it cannot do what the Americans demand when the relationship is so unpopular.
Minutes before Clinton arrived, the paramilitary announced that at least three soldiers and up to 34 militants were killed in a gun battle in the tribal district of Khyber, a key route for NATO supplies into Afghanistan.
"When the Americans ask us to do more, why don't they try to understand our problems and address our reservations and concerns?" one Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Pakistan will tell the Americans that the military options are getting limited in Afghanistan and there is a need to promote a genuine Afghan-led peace process," he added.
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