Madeleine police files going public

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The police files from the exhaustive inquiry, which lasted more than 14 months, are being made available to journalists after the shelving of the case a fortnight ago.

Included in the mammoth dossier - said to run to 20,000 pages - are witness statements, transcripts of interviews with the McCanns and details of the lines of inquiry detectives pursued.

The files are being made public under Portuguese law after the lifting of the period of judicial secrecy in the case.

From today officials from the public prosecutor's office in the Algarve town of Portimao will copy the documents on to DVDs for reporters who have requested them.

Lawyers for Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, both 40, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were formally given access to the police files last week.

They are studying the dossier for fresh leads that the couple's private detectives can follow up in their own search for their daughter.

Until now Portugal's strict "segredo de justica" - or secrecy of justice - laws have limited the flow of information about the Madeleine inquiry.

The legislation is supposed to ban anyone linked to an ongoing police investigation from speaking about it, but it did not stop a series of leaks to Portuguese newspapers.

The McCanns repeatedly complained about restricted information being made public, and the couple believe there was a concerted smear campaign against them.