Arming Kurds On EU Agenda In Brussels

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have been pushed back by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq

EU foreign ministers are holding an emergency meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss plans to arm Iraq's Kurds against an extremist insurgency.

France and the US have already begun to supply weapons to the Kurds, whose Peshmerga fighters are trying to halt an advance by Islamic State militants.

On Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki resigned and conceded power to Haider al-Abadi, Iraq's deputy speaker.

Over a million Iraqis remain displaced from their homes, the UN says.
The UN has declared the situation in the country a "level three emergency", its highest level of humanitarian crisis.

A UN Security Council meeting on Friday is expected to approve a resolution threatening sanctions against any country which finances or supports IS.
'People dying'
The emergency EU meeting was called for by France, whose foreign minister Laurent Fabius criticised the EU for inaction on Iraq.

Paul Wood reports from Mount Sinjar, from where many refugees have escaped, but some 'stragglers' remain

"When there are people dying... you have to come back from your holidays" he told EU foreign policy chief Baroness (Catherine) Ashton in a letter earlier this week.

About 20 ministers will discuss EU-wide approval to ship arms to the Kurds and the Iraqi army.