The US is sending 300 military advisers to help the Iraqi government fight Islamist militants - and Barack Obama has warned airstrikes could follow.
Speaking at the White House, the President said he was prepared to take "targeted" military action but stressed US troops, who withdrew from Iraq in 2011 after eight years, would not return to combat in the country.
The announcement came as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants seized one of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons factories.
Burnt out Iraqi security force vehicles in Mosul, where ISIS have control "We are aware that the ISIL (ISIS) has occupied the Al Muthanna complex," state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.
However, she said she did not believe the group would be able to produce usable chemical weapons there, because any materials remaining are old and unwieldy.
The US contingent being sent to Iraq will be made up of special forces and will staff joint operations centres for intelligence sharing and planning, officials said.
USGS/NASA image of smoke billowing from the Baiji oil refinery "American forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq but we will help Iraqis as they take the fight to terrorists who threaten the Iraqi people, the region and American interests as well," Mr Obama said.
The President said he was sending Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East and Europe at the weekend for talks with US allies and partners on ways to stabilise the region.
A US official added Mr Kerry was "expected to go Iraq soon" to meet Iraqi officials, but did not specify a date.
Clashes continue at Baiji, the country's largest refinery Mr Obama stressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki needed to take urgent steps to heal Iraq's sectarian rift, but stopped short of calling for him to go, saying: "It's not our job to choose Iraq's leaders."
"Above all, Iraqi leaders must rise above their differences and come together around a political plan for Iraq's future," he said.
Leading US politicians have joined calls for Mr Maliki to quit as a condition for US help.
Shia fighters from the Mehdi Army at a military-style training in Najaf Sunni tribal chief Sheik Ali Hatem al Suleiman, the emir of the Sunni Dulaim tribe from Anbar province, said Mr Obama could no longer rely on Mr Maliki to deal with the insurgency.
"I think that most of President Obama's speech, but not all of it, was shallow and didn't address the heart of the matter," he said.
"It talked about participation, it talked about a national government, but you can't come to Iraq with a speech that doesn't address the truth of the problem.
US military advisers will be sent into Iraq to help Iraqi forces "And the real problem in Iraq is al Maliki himself. I don't think Obama's speech addressed the reality of today's Iraq. You can't rely on him. The man has become paralysed."
As Mr Obama announced his most significant response to the Iraqi crisis, the sprawling Baiji refinery, 130 miles (200km) north of the capital near Tikrit, was transformed into a battlefield.
Troops loyal to the Shia-led government held off the ISIS insurgents and their allies who had stormed the perimeter a day earlier, threatening national energy supplies.
New recruits, Shia loyalists, are trained after volunteering in Baghdad A government spokesman said at one point on Thursday that Iraqi forces were in "complete control", but a witness in Baiji said fighting was continuing.
Two Iraqi helicopters tried to land in the refinery but were unable to because of insurgent gunfire, and most of the refinery remained under rebel control, witnesses said.
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