UN, US consider Iraq

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that US President Barack Obama would take "key decisions in short order" to help Iraq's government tackle the ISIS insurgency.

Insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have made rapid advances into areas controlled by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, declaring Shariah law across the north, including Iraq's second-most populous city, Mosul. On Thursday, the militants vowed to push further.

"We are deeply concerned about what is happening in Iraq," said Kerry, during a brief appearance adding that the US was providing assistance and was in direct contact with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Earlier, US President Barack Obama said his national security teams were looking at all options to push back the Islamists. However, he did not specify what form the help might take and the White House later said that it was not contemplating sending ground troops.

Kerry's comments came as members of the UN Security Council discussed the matter behind closed doors on Thursday.

Russia, which currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, blamed inadequate restructuring in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion of the country. Moscow's envoy to the council, Vitaly Churkin, described the situation as "extremely dramatic" but added that he didn't know what members could do.

'A regional threat'

Earlier, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told German daily newspaper Bild that the fighting in Iraq represented a regional threat. "The fighting threatens to plunge not just Iraq but the entire region, which has been knocked out of balance by the war in Syria, further into violence and chaos," said Steinmeier.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague ruled out military intervention, but said London was in close consultation with the US. He floated the possibility of sending British aid to refugees displaced by the fighting - some 500,000 people were said to be uprooted by the fighting in and around the northern town of Mosul alone.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he had "begun a series of consultations on this matter with his main counterparts," according to ministry spokesman Romain Nadal.

NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, on a visit to Madrid, said he saw no role for the defense alliance in dealing with the Iraq situation.

rc/msh (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)