Taliban had met Khalilzad, adding that the Taliban delegation was still in Islamabad for meetings on Friday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Taliban leader in Afghanistan said the delegation's visit to Pakistan was intended to revive negotiations and end the 18-year war.

A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. government told Kabul that Khalilzad planned to meet the Taliban in Islamabad, a senior Afghan government source said.

However, Afghan officials were told the meeting was to discuss the 2016 kidnapping of two university professors, American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, in Kabul by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani group.

The source said the Afghan government, led by President Ashraf Ghani, does not want the peace process to resume unless it is led byAfghans. Ghani has complained bitterly about the Taliban shutting his administration out of the previous talks.

The Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the group's founders, met Pakistan's foreign minister in Islamabad on Thursday and both sides called for a resumption of the talks as soon as possible.

Video of Pakistan's warm welcome for the Taliban this week circulated on media sites, and Afghans bristled on social media at images of Taliban and Pakistan officials exchanging hugs and smiles.

The United States has long considered Pakistan's cooperation crucial to ending the war in Afghanistan.

The latest developments follow a meeting last week between Trump and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The United States and Taliban said last