Czechoslovakia’s former spy agency targeted Donald Trump in the 1980s as part of a mission to gain information about the US government, archive files have revealed.

The country's intelligence service, Státní bezpečnost (StB), began their operation to spy on Mr Trump in 1977, when he married his first wife, Ivana Zelníčková.

The operation was based in Miss Zelníčková's hometown Zlín in south-west Czechoslovakia and relied on tips from her father Miloš Zelníček, according to files seen by The Guardian newspaper.

Mr Zelníček was a regular informant for the agency, passing on information to the local StB office from his daughter's trips home and tidbits about Mr Trump's career.

The future US president was already a well known figure, thanks to his New York real estate empire and considered to be well connected to the upper echelons of American society.