US President Joe Biden on Tuesday issued a decree banning members of the Nicaraguan government from entering the country, the White House reported.

"The repressive and abusive acts of the Ortega government and those who support it compel the United States to act," Biden said in the decree.

Biden's travel ban applied to all of Nicaragua's "elected officials," including Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, in addition to security force members, judges, mayors and others seen as undermining democracy in the Central American nation.

Biden also extended the sanctions regime against Nicaragua by one year.