Nechirvan Barzani told the BBC it would be difficult to find a resolution with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in power and recommended an autonomous region for Sunnis as a potential solution.

ISIL militants launched their lightning offensive in Iraq's second city Mosul a week ago.

In the latest fighting on Monday, Sunni militants took control of several neighbourhoods of Tal Afar, between the now rebel-held Mosul and the Syrian border.

Asked if Iraq was falling to pieces, Barzani said: "I don't think so, it will, can stay together again."

"Now we have to sit down and find a solution, find how to live together... but if we expect, if we think that Iraq will go back like before Mosul, I don't think so, it's almost impossible."

He said a political rather than military solution was needed to the unrest, taking account of Sunnis' feeling of being "neglected" by government policies.

Asked whether a solution was possible with Maliki in power, he said: "There is no trust right now we have to be honest... in my view it's difficult."

On possible autonomy for Sunni areas, he added: "We have to leave it to Sunni areas to decide it but I think this is the best model for them as well to do it. The best way is to have a Sunni region like what we have in Kurdistan."

ISIL militants are said to have killed scores of Iraqi soldiers as they pushed towards the capital, a massacre that has drawn international condemnation and prompted diplomatic evacuations in Baghdad.