US President Donald Trump wants “regime change” in Cuba by the end of the year, according to US news reports.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration is attempting to identify Cuban officials willing to make a deal as part of a regime change bid.

The newspaper quoted anonymous officials as saying that the White House did not have a “concrete plan” for Cuba, but January’s kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the US military was thought to be “a blueprint and a warning for Cuba.”

One source told the Wall Street Journal that meetings had taken place with Cuban exiles’ groups in a bid to identify any government officials in Cuba who might be willing “to cut a deal.”

The US president has directly threatened the socialist island, writing on social media earlier this month: “I strongly suggest they make a deal before it is too late.”

Ricardo Zuniga, a former official in the administration of president Barack Obama who helped negotiate a short-lived detente between Havana and Washington from 2014 to 2017, said he believed the Cuban leadership would be “a much tougher nut to crack” than Venezuela’s.

“There’s nobody who would be tempted to work on the US side,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

The latest US threats were made the day after China had delivered $80 million (around £60m) in financial assistance and 60,000 tons of rice to Cuba.

In Havana, the presidential office said the Chinese money was for the “acquisition of electrical equipment and other urgent needs of the country.”

The donation “demonstrates the close brotherhood and historic bonds of friendship and solidarity that unite both nations,” added Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez .

Chinese ambassador to Cuba Hua Xin said the financial assistance “not only embodies the deep bonds of special friendship between both nations but also demonstrates the unwavering commitment to remain united even in difficult times.”