Madeleine accusations 'ludicrous'

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The latest unconfirmed allegation is that tests on a liquid found in the family's hire car suggest the young girl might have overdosed on sleeping tablets.

Toxicological analysis showed Madeleine consumed a "significant" quantity of the pills, the French newspaper France Soir reported, citing unnamed sources in Portugal.

Mr McCann said he and his wife Kate knew they were innocent but were frightened and had been "backed into a corner".

He told a friend, quoted in The Sun: "There are large craters in every one of these theories, in these just ludicrous accusations. As far as Kate and I are concerned, there is no evidence to suggest that Madeleine is dead. We are 100% together on this, not one grain of suspicion about each other."

Meanwhile, a Portuguese newspaper reported that detectives have "nothing concrete" to implicate the McCanns in Madeleine's disappearance and may be depending on them making a confession.

A "high-ranking" Policia Judiciaria officer, who was not named, told 24 Horas: "We have nothing concrete. There are a lot of indications, but without more elements it's impossible to determine what happened in those four vital hours in the case (between 6pm and 10pm on the night Madeleine vanished).

"Even if the blood and traces gathered in the car or in the apartment were confirmed to correspond 100% to the little girl's DNA, that wouldn't prove anything. Those elements could only confirm - and that doesn't even happen - that the little girl was in the apartment (which is obvious) and in the car.

"In either of the cases nothing would prove homicide, just that the body of the little girl had been transferred in the vehicle. We don't know if Madeleine is dead, and if she is, how it all happened. Was she strangled? Could she have been beaten? They are questions only the parents could clarify in an eventual confession."

Other Portuguese newspapers claimed police are investigating whether the McCanns had any "accomplices" in allegedly disposing of Madeleine's body and concocting a false story.