Washington, Oct 21
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he will allow the National Archives to release thousands of pages of secret government documents on the John F. Kennedy (JFK) assassination, a media report said.

"Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened," Trump tweeted at 8.35 a.m., the New York Post reported.

Assassination experts say the secret records may reveal new details about what the CIA knew of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's trip to the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City weeks before he shot Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

The National Archives is required to release all of its JFK documents by Thursday, 25 years to the day after President George H.W. Bush signed the the JFK Assassination Records Act. Under the act, Trump can withhold part or all of the documents if he decides some "identifiable harm" weighs against disclosure.

Eighty-eight percent of the Archives' five million pages of JFK material are already public. Another 11 per cent are partly public, with sensitive portions removed. One per cent of the records are completely secret.

Oswald visited the Mexico City embassies to apply for visas that would let him return to the Soviet Union, where he lived from 1959 to 1962. The CIA watched both embassies closely. But assassination experts are convinced the CIA and FBI haven't disclosed all they knew about Oswald's Mexico City trip.

The Warren Commission â€” appointed by President Lyndon Johnson â€” determined a year after the assassination that Oswald acted alone.

But alternate theories about the assassination abound. A 2013 Gallup poll found 61 percent of Americans believe Kennedy's assassination was a conspiracy.

The President is the only person in government with the authority to block the documents' publication.

The 1963 killing of Kennedy shocked the world. It has long been shrouded in controversy and conspiracy theories, with many people believing there was a second gunman.

Oswald was shot dead by gunman Jack Ruby before he could be tried.

Trump says he'll allow release of secret JFK assassination files