A mysterious UFO seen hovering in the sky above Wales is set to be the subject of a US TV show.

International interest in little green men was sparked after it was reported earlier this month that a police helicopter had almost been involved in a collision with a flying saucer while waiting for landing clearance at the Ministry of Defence's base in St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan.

The alleged incident saw the whole of Wales gripped by extraterrestrial excitement, prompting the phone lines in the office of Media Wales to jam as floods of readers rang in to tell of similar experiences with strange sights in our skies.

Now hit American investigative show UFO Hunters is looking for people who may have witnessed the events on or around June 8 to take part in a programme for its next series, due to begin filming in August.

"After the news of the incident over St Athan broke it went all over the world and the team behind UFO Hunters were straight on the phone to me asking for help find possible witnesses to that and other unexplained incidents," said Philip Mantle, 50, of UFO DATA magazine who is working as a consultant for the upcoming Wales-based episode.

"Wales has been a hotbed for UFO sightings over the years but what makes St Athan so extraordinary is that the story came from an official source, the police - that gives it that extra bit of credence."

But Philip added he'd also found some civilians who had seen it too.

"One woman we interviewed said she was standing in her back yard at around half past midnight that night having a final cigarette before bed and couldn't believe what she was seeing," he said.

"She saw the helicopter chasing another aircraft, but it was failing to keep up because this thing was going like a bat out of hell apparently."

And Philip himself is no stranger to close encounters of the third kind, having spotted two unusual lights in the sky while driving home from work in 1984.

"It was at 9.57pm exactly on July 23, not that it made much on an impression on me, mind," he said.

"I saw two big luminous circles, like two white pearls hovering on the horizon out the passenger side window, which disappeared before my very eyes."

Philip added that his sighting was among the top-secret government records being made public for the first time in the next four years when they are handed over to the National Archives - more than 160 MoD files which contain 11,000 reported sightings from the last 30 years

"UFOs are clearly as popular a subject as ever and I'm sure the show is going to be a huge success," he said.

Other UFO sightings:

Days before the St Athan incident a Bridgend man saw two aircraft, one at 200ft and the other at about 1,000ft, with "bright white lights at the front and flickering red and green lights at the rear." They flew silently, only emitting a faint drone as they turned and disappeared.

In May a 100ft high green and blue triangle was seen over Pont Robert, Powys, along with 'pink pulsating lights'.

Spotted near Port Talbot, two clusters of amber, orange and white lights in triangular formations, moving 'like a bobbing cork'.

Last year one holidaymaker in Cardiff claimed to have seen "spaceships" and that little green men had "abducted his dog, car and tent".

A silent bright orange globe-shaped light was seen by a Bridgend woman in February 2007, hovering over her mother's house. "It made me feel weird," she said.

In March 2006 a pensioner saw cigar shaped lights in the sky, moving down the Garth Mountain at speed for 30 minutes before vanishing.