The European Union has sought to forge a unified response to the rapid advance of Islamic militants in Iraq and the resulting refugee crisis.

Several EU nations have pledged more humanitarian aid and opened the way to directly arming Kurdish fighters battling Sunni insurgents.

The emergency meeting of the bloc’s 28 foreign ministers in Brussels marked a shift towards greater involvement in Iraq, following weeks during which Europeans mainly considered the situation an American problem because of the 2003 US-led Iraq invasion.

EU ministers pledged to step up their efforts to help those displaced by the advances of militants from the Islamic State (IS) group, with several nations announcing they will fly dozens of tons of aid to northern Iraq over the coming days.

“First of all we need to make sure that we alleviate humanitarian suffering,” Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans said. “Secondly, I believe we need to make sure that IS is not in a position to overrun the Kurds or to take a stronger hold on Iraq.”

France has pledged to ship weapons to the Kurds, Britain is delivering ammunition and military supplies obtained from eastern European nations and is considering sending more weaponry. Germany, the Netherlands and others said they would also consider requests to arm the Kurds.

“These are crises … that are of concern to our European neighbourhood, to our security and stability,” said Italian foreign minister Federica Mogherini.

The IS militants’ advances also bring danger closer to European shores. Officials say about 1,700 radical Muslims from France, Britain and Germany alone are believed to have joined the fighting. A radical French Islamist who had fought in Syria is suspected of killing four people at Brussels’ Jewish Museum in May.

The IS group swiftly advanced across northern and western Iraq in June, routing the Iraqi military and taking the country’s second-largest city, Mosul. Thousands of people have been killed and more than 1.5 million have been displaced.

The plight this month of thousands of Yazidis, a religious minority, who fled from advancing IS militants and were trapped on a forbidding mountain range, was key to pushing Europe toward taking action.

France, Britain, Italy and Germany have stepped up humanitarian aid and are delivering dozens of tons of vital supplies to help the refugees in Iraq, including food items, drinking water and medical supplies.

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was flying to Iraq over the weekend to meet with Kurdish leaders and the government in Baghdad to discuss what support is most needed.

Kurdistan, which took in tens of thousands of refugees over the past weeks, will not only need short-term humanitarian aid but also long-term support to accommodate the displaced, Mr Steinmeier said. “This will very quickly challenge and probably overwhelm the infrastructure in Irbil and the region,” he added.

In a joint statement, the EU foreign ministers also endorsed the decision by some member states “to respond positively to the call by the Kurdish regional authorities to provide urgently military material” as long as it is done in concert with Iraq’s central government.

Some had cautioned before the meeting that arming the Kurds could eventually strengthen their bid for independence from Iraq and see the weapons turned against Baghdad’s soldiers.

Mr Steinmeier said it was still unclear what arms the Kurds would request or get, but acknowledged there was “no decision without risk in that regard”.

The Islamic State is acting “with a military force and brutality that has surprised almost everybody, worldwide”, Mr Steinmeier added.