WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is reaching out to world leaders, including President Asif Ali Zardari, as part of a damage-control exercise ahead of an imminent release of millions of secret diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks.

US officials warned that the most sensitive of these documents were instructions from Washington to 297 US diplomatic missions about negotiations on issues such as the START treaty or about next steps in Afghanistan.

In Pakistan, Secretary Clinton is calling both President Zardari and the country’s military leaders as the expected leaks concern both.