A candidate for the upcoming US House election this week is standing by a claim she made many years ago that aliens had abducted her when she was seven years old and told her that thousands of non-human skulls were once discovered in a cave in Malta.

Republican candidate Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera says that, when she was a young girl, she was taken onboard a spaceship by blond extraterrestrials who resembled the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

She says they also told her that "the centre of the world's energy is Africa".

The Florida candidate may otherwise have a long list of accomplishments to bolster her campaign, but she is perhaps best known for claiming that she was abducted by space aliens as a child.

Rodriguez Aguilera is a long shot in the race for the Miami-area seat being vacated by retiring Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

In an interview this week, Rodriguez Aguilera said her tale of kidnapping by aliens does not define her: "It has nothing to do with what I have done. It happened when I was seven years old."

She said she had witnessed paranormal activity since then and that she saw a UFO when she was 17. She also said that she has been in touch, telepathically, with the aliens who had told her about the Malta skulls long after the abduction.

"I stick to my guns when I believe in something," she said.

Perhaps next time she is communicating telepathically with her alien friends she could ask them for the location of that cave in Malta or, who knows, if she is elected she could maybe organise a Congressional fact-finding mission.

Endorsing her candidature recently, The Miami Herald wrote in an editorial: "We realise that Rodriguez Aguilera is an unusual candidate," but added that it was impressed with her "boots-on-the-ground ideas and experience."

Rodriguez-Aguilera said: "The theme of my campaign is people above politics. I train people around the world about democracy. I have the most experience. I can go in there and start working just as I have all my life."