Washington DC, Feb. 6 -- US President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued an executive order to prevent transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports unless they were assigned female at birth, The New York Times reported.

He also vowed to withhold federal funding from high schools and colleges that fail to comply with the directive.

"From now on, women's sports will be only for women," Trump said in his address from the White House East Room. "The war on women's sports is over."

The White House in an executive order titled 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports,' stated that in recent years, many educational institutions and athletic associations have allowed men to compete in women's sports.

It further said that "igno...