**Afghan President Hamid Karzai is shortly expected to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran in Kabul.**It is the Iranian president’s first visit to the neighbouring country since Mr Ahmadinejad and Mr Karzai were re-elected last year.
Later, the Afghan president will head to Pakistan for a two day visit.
President Karzai has been criticised for not doing enough to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table, to end the conflict in Afghanistan.
The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville, in Kabul, says the co-operation of Iran and Pakistan is thought critical to any such deal.
Tehran has been criticised by the United States for offering “low level support” and money to the Taliban, a claim Iran denies.
But with the recent capture of leading Taliban figures, Pakistan has shown its co-operation will be essential to ending the insurgency in Afghanistan, our correspondent adds.
Later on Wednesday, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband is expected to deliver a speech in the US, urging President Karzai to do more to find a political solution to the conflict with the Taliban.
The military effort alone will not be enough to resolve the conflict, he is expected to say, and Afghanistan’s neighbours will need to play a central role in securing peace in the country.