Documents published in France suggest the country's late president Francois Mitterand personally authorised the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior.

The respected newspaper Le Monde has published extracts of French security service reports written in 1986.

They show that Mitterand knew of and approved the plan to destroy the vessel in Auckland Harbour.

France's Defence Minister of the time wrote of his president's determination to press ahead with nuclear tests, which the Greenpeace ship was protesting against.