WASHINGTON - The US Central Intelligence Agency offered buyouts to its entire workforce on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The move would make it the first intelligence agency to join a voluntary redundancy program initiated by President Donald Trump for federal employees.

The agency is also freezing the hiring of job seekers already given a conditional offer, the paper reported, citing an aide to CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

The anonymous aide said some of those frozen offers are likely to be rescinded if the applicants do not have the right background for the agency's new goals, which include targeting drug cartels and Trump's trade war, according to the Journal.

The move is part of a massive overhaul of the US government by Trump, who has vowed to radically downsize the federal workforce in the name of efficiency and frugality that has sent shock waves through Washington.

The report on the buyout offers at the CIA -- whose work gathering foreign intelligence is vital to US national security -- came just hours after Trump announced an extraordinary scheme for the United States to "take over the Gaza Strip."

The CIA did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

AFP

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