McCann detectives check new leads

Belgian police said they had received more than 100 reports of possible sightings of the youngster, after it was revealed a Scotland Yard informant suggested Madeleine was stolen to order by a Belgian paedophile gang.

And artist sketches of a man and woman seen in an Amsterdam shop with a girl who identified herself as "Maddie" were released.

The pictures were drawn by a police artist on the evidence of Anna Stam, the 41-year-old shopkeeper who saw the couple with a girl resembling Madeleine last year.

The drawings, commissioned by the Daily Mirror, show a swarthy, dark-haired man with pencil moustache and short dark hair and a light brown-haired woman with thin lips.

The girl entered Ms Stam's party shop with a man and a woman and two other children in early May. The man, aged between 35 and 40, spoke Portuguese while the woman, who was in her 40s, spoke English. She told Ms Stam they were from a French travelling circus.

Ms Stam said the little girl, who looked like Madeleine apart from the colour of her hair, asked her: "Do you know where my mummy is?"

On being told that her mother was a little further back in the store, the child replied, "She is not my mummy," and added: "She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy."

Alain Remue, who heads the Belgian police missing persons unit, said about a third of the possible sightings were from clairvoyants and another third lacked concrete information. Around 30, however, they were able to investigate further.

He said officers had examined "every possible link" between the disappearance and the information they had received.