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The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court, vowing to cripple the tribunal's operations just hours after the Nobel Peace Prize went to a former ICC judge who warned of mounting political attacks on the court.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would ban transactions with what he called a "rogue court," escalating a long-running campaign by President Donald Trump's administration against the Hague-based tribunal.

"Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC," Rubio said in a statement.

The court rejected the US sanctions as an attack on international law and warned in a statement that "history will judge this moment".

The move came on the same day the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to South Africa's Navi Pillay, an 85-year-old jurist who headed the Rwanda genocide tribunal, served on the ICC and later led a UN commission that accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.

Rubio's statement did not mention Pillay or the Nobel award.

Instead, he said the sanctions were needed to protect security personnel and elected officials from prosecution by a court the United States has never joined.

"President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans," Rubio said, adding that the measures would cut off the court's resources and cripple "its ability to operate."

The top US diplomat said Washington had for more than a year spelled out "basic gestures of good faith" it expected from the court, and had held off on the designation in hopes that the ICC or its member states would change course.

He said no "meaningful steps" were taken to address US concerns.

Rubio also called on US allies that belong to the court and "rely on American service members for their defense" to rein it in, warning that otherwise Washington would keep working to dismantle the ICC "brick by brick."

The Trump administration had previously sanctioned individual ICC officials, including its prosecutor and several judges, over the court's investigations involving the United States and Israel, which is also not a member.

Trump last month called on all ICC member states to quit the body, denouncing it as "out of control" and a "rogue institution."