Pakistan will continue to play a supportive role for the progress and successful outcome of peace efforts aimed at ending Afghanistan's nearly 18-year war, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Thursday.

He was talking to US special representative for peace in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, who called on the foreign minister in Islamabad ahead of his visit to Doha for talks with the Afghan Taliban.

The US envoy during the meeting with Qureshi shared the outcomes of the 7th round of US-Taliban talks in the Qatari capital and his recent engagements in Kabul. Khalilzad had termed his latest visit to Afghanistan as the "most productive" since he took up the office of the special representative.

Foreign Minister Qureshi "welcomed the progress achieved in the talks and the Intra-Afghan Peace Conference in Doha in which all participants agreed upon a basic roadmap", a Foreign Office press release said.

It was noted during the meeting that ultimately, the intra-Afghan dialogue would be vital to reach an agreement that brings peace and stability to Afghanistan.

Qureshi told Khalilzadad that Pakistan will continue to play its supportive role for "smooth progress and successful outcome" of the peace efforts.

"It was also stressed that taking the Afghan peace process forward remained a shared responsibility," the FO statement said.

Diplomatic sources had told Dawn on Wednesday that Khalilzad was visiting Islamabad for consultations to encourage direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

Ambassador Khalilzad also leads the US team in the Doha talks with the Taliban, which have continued for almost a year without a breakthrough. Both sides, however, claim making small but concrete gains which, they say, is helping them understand each other better and hope that this understanding will ultimately lead to an agreement.

At a White House meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan last week, US President Donald Trump had said that he hoped “Pakistan is going to help us out to extricate ourselves” from Afghanistan.

The prime minister responded to Trump’s sentiments by offering to invite senior Taliban leaders to Islamabad for talks on including the Afghan government in the peace process. So far, the Taliban have refused to hold direct talks with the Afghan government.

Diplomatic sources in Washington say the United States wants the latest peace move to lead to an agreement on the withdrawal of foreign forces in exchange for security guarantees by the Taliban.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told journalists in Doha on Wednesday that senior militant leaders were now in Jakarta and the next round of peace talks would resume after they returned to Qatar.