No military intervention in Iraq sans UN backing: France

France will not consider a military option to stop insurgents' offensive in Iraq until it receives the UN green light, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Friday.

Asked by the news channel BFMTV about a possible French military intervention in the strife-torn oil-rich nation, the country's top diplomat said: "We have a principle: we could intervene if there was a request from the Iraqi government and with UN authorisation."

"Western intervention can be effective if it is backed up by a unity government. With or without Maliki, what Iraq needs is a government of national unity," Fabius stressed.

Fabius also warned that "the situation in Iraq is extremely serious," as "it is the first time that terrorist group threatens to take control of a state", Xinhua reported

US President Barack Obama has announced he was sending up to 300 US military advisors to the Arab country after militants captured two northern cities and sectarian violence rocked the already fragile political stability.