Australia has been talking to the US about possible participation in humanitarian airdrops over northern Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Abbott says.
"We've been asked to consider participation in humanitarian airdrops," Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney.
"This is a potential humanitarian disaster," he said of the situation in northern Iraq, where tens of thousands of mainly women and children were surrounded by Islamic State militants who were threatening to kill them.
US military planes have dropped containers with water and tens of thousands of meals to civilians, the Pentagon says.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaking at a press conference on Saturday.
Three cargo planes escorted by two F/A-18 combat jets dropped the supplies, which were intended "for thousands of Iraqi citizens threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Mount Sinjar, Iraq," the Pentagon said.
The cargo planes - a C-17 and two C-130s - together dropped a total of 72 bundles of supplies, which included 28,224 individually packaged meals and 16 bundles containing 1,522 gallons of fresh drinking water.
The combat jets were from the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier, the statement read.
"To date, in coordination with the government of Iraq, US military aircraft have delivered 36,224 meals and 6,822 gallons of fresh drinking water, providing much-needed aid to Iraqis who urgently require emergency assistance," the Pentagon said.
US steps up strikes against ISIS in Iraq
Tony Abbott's announcement comes as US aircraft launched attacks on targets of militants in northern Iraq.
US forces launched three rounds of air strikes against Islamic extremists near Arbil in northern Iraq, destroying a militant convoy and killing a mortar team.
Shortly after 1400 GMT, US drones destroyed a mortar position and killed a group of militants. Just over an hour later four F/A-18 jets hit a seven-vehicle Islamic State convoy with eight laser-guided bombs.
"The US military continued to attack ISIL targets near Arbil today conducting two additional air strikes to help defend the city where US personnel are assisting the government of Iraq," Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.
President Barack Obama announced Thursday that he had authorized US air strikes to prevent fighters from the so-called Islamic State from attacking the capital of the Iraqi Kurdish region.
The strikes are also designed to break the siege of Mount Sinjar, where IS forces have cornered and reportedly threatened to kill thousands of civilian refugees from the Yazidi religious minority.
Overnight, a first strike saw an F/A-18 hit an IS artillery position with a 500lb bomb. Shortly beforehand US military planes had dropped food and water to the beleaguered Yazidis.
Friday's second wave saw unmanned drones brought into action.
"Remotely piloted aircraft struck a terrorist mortar position. When ISIL fighters returned to the site moments later, the terrorists were attacked again and successfully eliminated," Kirby said.
"At approximately 11:20 a.m. EDT, four F/A-18 aircraft successfully struck a stationary ISIL convoy of seven vehicles and a mortar position near Arbil," his statement continued.
"The aircraft executed two planned passes. On both runs, each aircraft dropped one laser guided bomb making a total of eight bombs dropped on target neutralizing the mortar and convoy."
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