The number of UFO sightings logged with the Ministry of Defence more than
doubled to 285 last year, a rise described as "phenomenal" by experts. It is the
highest number of sightings in 10 years.

All the incidents are included in a document released by the MoD yesterday,
which details the date, time and location of the sightings, along with a brief
summary of the eyewitness reports.

The Palace of Westminster sighting on Feb 12 is described as follows: "There
was a craft that had green, red and white lights. It was still and static in the
sky. It was seen for about an hour and a half." There is no information about
who reported the UFO or what it may have been.

The MoD only investigates reports of unidentified flying objects that it
considers may pose a risk to national security, and most of the incidents seem
just to have been logged and ignored. One UFO, in the skies over Stroud in
Gloucestershire on June 2, is recorded only as "a sighting of something".

Many of the sightings read like the products of overactive imaginations. In
Scarborough, North Yorkshire on June 11 a member of the public reported seeing
"a cork shaped object that glowed like an angel, flew up and over some trees".

Others are strikingly specific, like this description of a UFO seen near
Blackpool in Lancashire on Sept 8: "An object, the shape of a chewing gum pack,
black in colour and had three circles of lights underneath it, emitting a dull
orange light. Was about 150 feet long and 50 feet wide."

Nick Pope, who used to investigate UFOs for the MoD in the 1990s and is now
one of the country's leading UFO authorities, said that the doubling of
sightings was "statistically extremely significant." In 2007 there were 135
reported sightings, and just 97 in 2006.

"If it was a more modest increase one could say it was due to all sorts of
reasons but this is phenomenal," he said.

"There are some interesting clusters of sightings in the summer where there
were six sightings on the same day, albeit in different parts of the country and
with different descriptions."

Mr Pope said that the increase in reporting was probably linked to the MoD's
release of documents from its UFO archive in May, which made headlines across
the world and helped make the phenomenon a mainstream issue again.

Many of archive documents featured testimonies from policemen and pilots,
which "sent a message to people that there is nothing to be ashamed of" about
reporting a UFO, Mr Pope said.