Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif departed Saturday for talks in the United States, with the Afghan peace process and the prickly issue of Washington's drone campaign likely to top the agenda.
Relations between Pakistan and the US, fractious allies in the "war on terror," have been on the mend this year after lurching from crisis to crisis in 2011 and 2012.
Sharif meets President Barack Obama on Wednesday with Washington keen to press the Pakistani premier to help faltering efforts to secure peace between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban.
Sharif will use the trip to seek help for his country's ailing economy and dysfunctional energy sector.
Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at US think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations, said that since coming to power in May Sharif had impressed Washington with his willingness to be a partner.
In the past Pakistan has been accused of being unhelpful in the Afghan peace process and of maintaining links with the Taliban, whose government in the 1990s Islamabad formally recognised.
The release of Afghan Taliban prisoners from Pakistani custody, including senior rebel leader Abdul Ghani Baradar last month, had gone some way to diminish these accusations, Markey said.
He said Obama would likely appreciate any new ideas from Pakistan on how to jump-start the Afghan peace process as the United States and Nato prepare to withdraw combat troops next year.
"If the Pakistanis come armed with some ideas on that front, they may win some points. If there are specific things that they can offer, they can show themselves to be helpful," said Markey, author of the new book "No Exit from Pakistan" on the two nations' relationship.
Pervez Rashid, Pakistan's information minister and spokesman for the government, told AFP the delegation would use the trip to raise the issue of drones.
The CIA's campaign of missile strikes from unmanned aircraft targeting suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border has been a significant thorn in relations.
The drone strikes are deeply unpopular in Pakistan and Islamabad publicly condemns them as counter-productive and a violation of sovereignty, though previous governments are known to have given their tacit support to them.
New aid 'unlikely'
Sharif is also expected to meet officials from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank as well as private investors as he seeks to make good on election promises to reinvigorate Pakistan's flaccid economy.
The IMF warned Pakistan last month that economic growth could be worse than expected next year due to strict austerity measures built into a $6.7 billion rescue loan.
Growth has bumped along at three percent in recent years, far below the seven percent experts say is needed to absorb the growing young population into the workforce.
While Washington is likely to pledge support for the economy, Askari said, it is unlikely to promise new aid in addition to the money already being given under the Kerry-Lugar bill and Coalition Support Fund.