World leaders meeting in Paris to form a broad coalition against Islamic State have agreed to provide military aid to Iraq to fight the extremist network.
International efforts to combat the Islamist militants, who have grabbed large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, have taken on an added urgency after the beheading of British aid worker David Haines and the threat to kill a second UK hostage.
British Jihadis special report
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is at the summit - spearheaded by French President Francois Hollande and Iraqi President Fuad Masum in Paris this morning - bringing together 30 countries to co-ordinate a response to the IS threat.
The countries agreed to "support the Iraqi government by any means necessary - including military assistance".
Mr Hollande opened the summit warning: "The terrorist threat is global and the response must be global. The cowardly murder of David Haines is a terrifying example of what is going on... There is no time to lose."
John Kerry and Philip Hammond arrive for the global summit on how to tackle IS in ParisJohn Kerry and Philip Hammond arrive for the global summit on how to tackle IS in ParisMr Hammond and US Secretary Of State John Kerry arriving in Paris
Some 930 French citizens or residents, including at least 60 women, are actively engaged in jihad in Iraq and Syria, or are planning to go there.
Mr Masum told delegates there was a need for a "quick response" to the Islamist group which he said had "committed massacres and genocidal crimes".
Representatives of the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), are also among the delegates at the conference.
David HainesMr Haines was taken hostage in Syria last year
Ahead of the talks, Washington said several countries in the Middle East had offered to join airstrikes against the militants, while Australia said it would send aircraft and personnel and France announced it would begin reconnaissance missions over Iraq.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who is under pressure to act following the killing of Mr Haines, has given no indication over whether he would commit military forces to airstrikes.
Video footage of the British aid worker's death showed a knife-wielding militant who speaks with a British accent.
The clip also included a threat to kill a second hostage, Alan Henning, who was a volunteer on an aid convoy.
David CameronMr Cameron has vowed to 'hunt down' the 'monsters' who killed Mr Haines
It follows the beheadings of two American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
Mr Cameron vowed to "hunt down" the "monsters" who killed Mr Haines, and said the crime would "strengthen our resolve" to smash the extremist network which has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria.
He said the UK would seek to "mobilise the broadest possible support to bear down" on IS at the United Nations.
"This is not about British combat troops on the ground, it is about working with others to extinguish this terrorist threat," he said.
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter fires at Baretle village, which is controlled by the Islamic State, in Khazir, on the edge of MosulA central part of the plan is to engage Arab countries in the coalition
"As this strategy intensifies we are ready to take whatever steps are necessary to deal with this threat and keep our country safe."
Explaining Mr Cameron's dilemma, Sky's Chief Political Correspondent Jon Craig said: "He tried to get a vote in Parliament last year on missile strikes on Syria.
"Thirty or so Conservative MPs voted against, as did Labour, and he lost the vote. He was humiliated. So he doesn't particularly want to go down that route again."
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is also in Paris and has been touring the Middle East to rally support, told CBS: "We have countries in this region, countries outside of this region, in addition to the United States, all of whom are prepared to engage in military assistance, in actual strikes if that is what it requires."
However, Iraq's president has said it is "not necessary" for Arab powers to join airstrikes against Islamic State.
