Britain is preparing for war against ISIS
The UK could join airstrikes targeting Isis bases in Syria before the end of the year.
UK Chancellor George Osborne said on Sunday on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme that "Britain is not a country that stands on their sidelines and let others protect it."
UK Prime Minister David Cameron will meet Francois Hollande, his French counterpart, next week to discuss Isis, Syria and the threat of further attacks following the massacre in Paris that claimed 130 lives.
He is then expected to make an argument for airstrikes in Syria, and may put the resolution to a vote in the House of Commons, according to a report in the Guardian on Sunday.
"We cannot wait for that civil war to end before taking the fight to its base in Isis in Syria, and that requires the RAF in my view taking part in the international efforts that are going on to degrade that," Osborne said.
He added: "In the week ahead the prime minister will come to the Commons and respond to the foreign affairs select committee report on the broader case for action in Syria , we will allow MPs to digest that response and then we will see where we stand.
"Britain is not a country that allows others to do its work for it . This organisation [Isis] has killed British tourists in Tunisia, it has planned plots against our citizens in Britain, it has killed people on the street in Paris and it has blown up a Russian airliner [over Egypt]. This is a threat against us all."