German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Friday the European Union welcomed the fact that individual countries had responded to requests for arms from the security forces in Iraq's Kurdish region.
Asked about Germany's position, he said after meeting his foreign minister counterparts that Germany would go to the limits of what is "legally and politically possible", and that would be clearer after his trip to Iraq this weekend.
The European Union said that individual EU governments were free to send weapons to Iraqi Kurds battling Islamic militants provided they had the consent of Iraqi national authorities.
EU foreign ministers holding an emergency meeting in Brussels did not reach a united position to all send arms to the Iraqi Kurds but welcomed the decision by some EU governments, such as France, to do so.
The EU said it would also look at how to prevent Islamic State militants, who have overrun some oilfields in Syria and Iraq, benefiting from oil sales. The bloc also called for a swift investigation of human rights abuses in Syria and Iraq, saying some may be crimes against humanity.