The British Prime Minister David Cameron has said "detailed plans" are in place for an international mission to rescue stranded Yazidis in Iraq.
He made the comments following an emergency UK government meeting on the crisis. Mr Cameron added that "Britain will play a role in delivering it."
Mr Cameron was speaking following his return from the family holiday in Portugal.
He stressed it would be a "humanitarian operation" and said there was no need to recall parliament to discuss it.
It comes as the United Nations (UN) says 30,000 people are at risk of genocide as they are stranded on a mountain in the north of the country.
AFP reports that UN minority rights expert Rita Izsak says "all possible measures must be taken urgently to avoid a mass atrocity and potential genocide within days or hours."
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said "the people of Iraq - all Iraqi people - need security. Yet the poison of hatred and brutality is spreading." He referenced accounts of executions, young girls being abducted and boys being forced to fight.
Some Iraqis have managed to escape to camps in the Syrian Kurdish town of Malikiya, 20 miles from the border.
Irish aid pledged
The Irish government has meanwhile announced it will provide €500,00 in emergency funding to help with the unfolding humanitarian crisis there. The aid is to focus on minority groups and vulnerable women and children.
Ireland will provide €250,000 to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and a further €250,000 to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said "The plight of the most vulnerable – particularly, children, women and elderly people – is increasingly desperate and Ireland is doing all it can to provide urgent life-saving assistance. Children are the most at risk and worst affected by violence and displacement."
"Ireland condemns in the strongest possible way deliberate attacks on Iraqi civilians and calls on all parties to the conflict to ensure safe passage of displaced populations and delivery of humanitarian assistance."
Thousands of people are stranded on Mount Sinjar
Meanwhile the United States has sent around 130 extra military personnel to northern Iraq to provide humanitarian help to those trapped.
US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said "I recommended to the President and the President has authorised me to go ahead and send about 130 new assessment team members up to northern Iraq in the Irbil area to take a closer look and give more in-depth assessment of where we can continue to help."
The soldiers have been sent to northern Iraq to "develop additional humanitarian assistance options beyond the current airdrop effort in support of displaced Iraqi civilians trapped on Sinjar Mountain by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant."
Since June the US has sent about 700 military personnel to Iraq to protect diplomats there and take stock of the country's military capacity.
Western powers and international aid agencies are considering further help for the thousands of refugees driven from their homes by the Sunni militants of the Islamic State near the Syrian border.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said his country would consider requests for military and other assistance once Iraq's new prime minister-designate forms a government to unite the country.
Haider al-Abadi has received support from the US and Iran as well as Sunni neighbours Turkey and Saudi Arabi.
Originally posted 6:10am
