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KABUL — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is encouraging Afghanistan’s wary leadership to keep up Taliban reconciliation efforts and boosting counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan as the Obama administration presses ahead with troop-withdrawal plans.

Clinton arrived in Kabul late Wednesday on an unannounced visit and was scheduled to see President Hamid Karzai, other top Afghan officials and civic leaders today. Her trip came after Karzai expressed frustration with attempts to woo Taliban fighters away from the insurgency amid increasing attacks by the Taliban-allied, Pakistan-based Haqqani network.

Clinton also was to underscore the importance of linking Afghanistan to its neighbors, a consideration for a regional conference in Istanbul in early November, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. sees a political settlement with the Taliban as key to ending the war and is pushing Karzai to lead and expand a reconciliation drive, although the Taliban has indicated no public interest in such a deal. A secret U.S. effort to spark negotiations earlier this year angered Karzai.

In addition to reconciliation, Clinton will be pressing the Afghans on reaching a binding security agreement that will govern U.S.-Afghanistan relations after U.S. troops leave.

Later today, CIA chief David Petraeus will be among an army of high-level U.S. officials with Clinton when she arrives in Islamabad to ramp up pressure on Pakistan to do more to stop militant infiltration across the border into Afghanistan, several U.S. officials in Washington and the region said.