President Donald Trump has signed an executive order suspending the US refugee programme for 120 days, specifically barring Syrian refugees until further notice.

Trump on Friday signed the order at the Pentagon, saying the moves would help protect Americans from "terrorist" attacks.

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said earlier on Friday.

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

Civil rights groups condemned the measures as discriminatory.

The order suspends the Syrian refugee programme until further notice, and will eventually give priority to minority religious groups fleeing persecution. Trump said in an interview with a Christian news outlet the exception would help Syrian Christians fleeing the civil war there.

His order had been expected to include a directive about setting up "safe zones" for Syrian refugees inside the country, but no such language was included.

The measure limits entry for at least 90 days from Syria and other Muslim-majority countries, but did not list the countries by name.

The state department said the three-month ban in the directive applied to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen - all Muslim-majority nations.

The order also said all immigration programmes should include questions to "evaluate the applicant's likelihood of becoming a positively contributing member of society".

'Extreme vetting'

Jennifer Sime, the senior vice president of US programmes at the International Rescue Committee, an NGO that works with refugees, told Al Jazeera: "I think it's important to understand that there is already a robust vetting process in place. It was reviewed a few days ago and new things were added to enhance the vetting process."

She added that refugees were already the "single most vetted population coming into the US".

On the exception in the order that favors Syrian Christian refugees, Sime said: "The first thing to remember is that this programme [was] based on the principle of non-discrimination, so it's not about choosing Muslims or Christians. Refugees are selected based on need, urgency and basically their cases, not based on political affiliation and religion."

PHOTO CAPTION

U.S. President Donald Trump signing an executive order at the Pentagon in Washington, U.S., January 27, 2017. REUTERS

Al-Jazeera