A job description for a UFO officer, written by an incumbent in November 2009 just before the desk was closed, is included among the 6,700 pages that can now be seen on the National Archives ...

An official MoD statement said: "The Ministry of Defence has no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extra-terrestrial life. "However, in over 50 years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of ...

The MoD closed its UFO desk in 2009 because nothing reported to it in 50 years had revealed anything to suggest a military threat to the UK.

The Ministry of Defence closed its UFO desk because it served "no defence purpose" and was taking staff away from "more valuable defence-related activities", newly released files show.

Nick Pope, an ex-employee of the UFO desk of the MoD said. "These are the real-life X-Files. Most UFO sightings had conventional explanations, but a small percentage remained unexplained.

The 25 files released by the National Archives include 4,400 pages and cover the work carried out in the final two years of the MoD's UFO desk, from late 2007 until November 2009.

Nick Pope, who previously worked on the MoD's UFO desk, said: "I hope people have as much fun reading these real-life X-Files as I had working on them.