WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — United States (US) President Donald Trump has moved to block US$5 billion of congressionally-approved foreign aid, the White House said Friday — raising the likelihood of a federal shutdown as Democrats oppose the policy.

The cuts “affect programmes of the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)”, Trump wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives.

The Trump administration has effectively dismantled USAID, the chief US foreign aid agency, since taking office.

Founded in 1961 as John F Kennedy sought to leverage aid to win over the developing world in the Cold War, USAID has been incorporated into the State Department after Secretary of State Marco Rubio slashed 85 per cent of its programming.

Trump, after taking office for the second time in January, launched a sweeping campaign to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government.

Democrats have warned that any attempt to reverse funding already approved by Congress would end any negotiations to avoid budgetary paralysis, the so-called “shutdown”, after September 30.