Young British Muslims have to be taught they "belong to this country" to reduce the risks of them being radicalised in foreign conflicts, a former intelligence chief has said.
Baroness Neville-Jones said the UK faced a "real danger" from British Islamists returning home after fighting in Syria and Iraq.
David Cameron has said this is the most serious security threat facing the UK.
He will meet advisers later to discuss the crisis in Iraq.
The National Security Council, chaired by the prime minister, will discuss the gains made by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) fighters, who have seized control of several cities and are advancing on Baghdad.
On Tuesday Mr Cameron said UK nationals fighting in Iraq and Syria could pose a "real threat" if they tried to return home. The UK has said up to 400 British nationals are fighting alongside militant groups in Syria.
'Direct threat'Baroness Neville Jones, a former chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, who was security minister between 2010 and 2011, said the prime minister was right to take the "mounting threat" extremely seriously.
"As a direct threat to us, Isis has only relatively recently emerged but it has been operating in Syria for quite some time," she told Radio 4's Today programme.
The young British men taking part in these conflicts were confused and naive, she said.
"Unfortunately the UK exports more young men to become jihadis in Europe than any other. The intelligence picture is clear. The numbers are there."
She added: "The danger lies in their desire to go, for whatever motive, and what happens to them when they are there. The real danger of radicalisation is them coming back with skills and without any other activity in life."
'Share ambitions'The UK authorities, she said, now had a much greater capability to keep track of people potentially at risk of radicalisation than in the aftermath of 9/11.
While the political and religious situation in the Middle East was "extremely complex", she said "we cannot let a situation go on" where young men believed that the West was to blame for all the problems in the region.
"We can't risk this kind of thinking brewing without any kind of antidote," she said.
Older Muslims in communities across the UK, she said, had a responsibility to try to "inform and educate" younger men about the dangers of radicalisation to stop them from travelling to conflict zones.
In the long-term, the UK needed to ensure that young Muslim men were fully integrated into their communities and felt that they had a stake in society, she said.
She added: "How do we persuade young men that they belong to this country and share the ambitions of other Britons? That is the task that lies before us."
Iraq struggleMr Cameron has ruled out military intervention in support of the government of Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.
But he has promised to do "absolutely everything we can" to protect Britain from the terrorist threat from fighters returning from Iraq and Syria.
The fighting between ISIS and Iraqi security forces, who are supported by Shia militias, has focused around the city of Baquba, 60km (35 miles) from Iraqi capital Baghdad.
The BBC's Middle East correspondent Jim Muir said there was "a great threat to Baghdad and people there are very nervous indeed".
There has been more fighting on the north and north-eastern approaches to the city with the rebels claiming they have made progress, he added.
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