A former senior aide of President Richard Nixon has come forward to say it was Nixon himself who personally ordered the 1972 Watergate break-in of the Democratic party headquarters.

Until now it had been long assumed that Nixon helped the cover-up of the break-in but did not order it to happen.

The aide, Jeb Magruder, said he overheard Nixon talking about the break-in plan on the phone with Attorney General John Mitchell on March 30 1972.