CRI听力:Countries Agree to Provide Any Means to Crackdown on IS

Thirty countries have agreed to provide Iraqi authorities with any means necessary, including military assistance, to help to crackdown on Islamic State militants.

The announcement comes as major countries attended a Paris conference over the situation in Iraq.

French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius gave a news briefing at the end of the conference.

"If we want to fight in an efficient way against these terrorists - which will take time, it is a long term action - then this action must be a global one."

France has already said it will join U.S. air strikes against IS with French aircraft beginning reconnaissance flights over Iraq.

The idea of a coalition has also been accepted by 10 Arab states including regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

But neither Iran nor Syria, which together share most of Iraq's border, were invited to the meeting.

Russia has insisted that the two countries are natural allies in the fight against the extremists.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov:

"In the struggle against terrorists, there are no good or bad terrorists. One should be consistent and not link anybody's political projects with them and not make them a higher priority than the joint task of the struggle against terrorism."

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong attended the meeting and says there should be no double standards in fighting terrorism and that all actions should respect nations' sovereignty.

The Syrian government has welcomed the consensus on fighting terrorism, but has said any uncoordinated action inside Syria without the consent of Damascus would be deemed as an aggression.

Meanwhile, the U.S. carried out an airstrike against an Islamic State position near Baghdad on Monday in support of Iraqi security forces.

U.S. officials say the airstrike was more offensive in nature and was not triggered by any advance of the militants toward the Iraqi capital.

Reports say there was also at least one airstrike near Mount Sinjar in northwestern Iraq.