Nelson Mandela's arrest in 1962 came as a result of a tip-off from an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency, a report says. Cited comments reportedly made by Donald Rickard, a former US vice-consul in Durban and CIA operative, to British film director John Irvin.

Mandela served 27 years in jail for resisting white minority rule before being released in 1990.

He was subsequently elected as South Africa's first black president. Mandela, president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, was on a US terror watch list until 2008.

Rickard, who died earlier this year, was never formally associated with the CIA but worked as a diplomat in South Africa before retiring in the late 70s.

According the sources, the interview was conducted by British film director John Irvin, who has made a film, Mandela's Gun, about his brief career as an armed rebel.

Rickard said, "I found out when he was coming down and how he was coming... that's where I was involved and that's where Mandela was caught". He added that Mandela was "completely under the control of the Soviet Union".

Rickard further added, "He could have incited a war in South Africa, the United States would have to get involved, grudgingly, and things could have gone to hell".

"We were teetering on the brink here and it had to be stopped, which meant Mandela had to be stopped. And I put a stop to it."

Zizi Kodwa, national spokesman of Mandela's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, called the revelation "a serious indictment" but said it was nothing new.

He claimed that though the incident happened decades ago, the CIA was still interfering in South African politics.

"We have recently observed that there are efforts to undermine the democratically elected ANC government," he alleged. "They never stopped operating here."

Rickard, who was reportedly employed by the CIA until 1978, died in March, two weeks after talking to Irvin.

President Ronald Reagan had originally placed the ANC on the list in the 1980s.