Meeting to focus on rise in global crises

The Ukraine conflict, Islamic State group jihadists and the wider "collapse of the global order" will occupy the world's security community at an annual meeting in Germany starting on Friday.

Also on the agenda of the three-day Munich Security Conference will be Iran's nuclear talks, the Syrian war and mass refugee crisis, West Africa's Ebola outbreak and cyberterrorism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among 20 heads of government on the guest list, along with 60-odd foreign and defense ministers including US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov.