Donald Trump appears to have inadvertently confirmed the existence of a covert CIA programme in a Twitter post.

In a series of tweets, the US President attacked The Washington Post in connection with a story about the termination of US efforts to aid rebels fighting to oust Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

He wrote: "The Amazon Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad."

The tweet appeared to refer to a report claiming the US President was phasing out the secret programme to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels, a policy began by Barack Obama in 2013.

It had been a covert programme until Mr Trump's tweet confirmed its existence.

"If the media reports are true, the President of the United States just confirmed a CIA covert action program. On Twitter," Ned Price, a former CIA employee, wrote on Twitter.

Donald Trump gives 40,000 boy scouts 'career advice' from a racist, bankrupt property developer

US officials told the newspaper in a story published on 19 July ending the secret program was related to Mr Trump's concerns about re-establishing a working relationship with Russia.

Mr Trump was reported to have made the decision nearly a month ago, after an Oval office meeting with CIA director mike Pompeo and national security adviser H R McMaster.