'No evidence' of harm to Madeleine

He said his family "strongly believed" the little girl could still be found and made a fresh appeal for information from the public.

Thousands of documents from the massive dossier of evidence assembled by detectives over more than 14 months were made public last week. They include forensic reports, witness statements, police intelligence and details of hundreds of possible sightings of Madeleine reported around the world.

Also in the file is the final 58-page report written by the Portuguese public prosecutors, who ruled on July 21 that the case should be shelved. They concluded it was "most probable" Madeleine was now dead - but noted that police had not been able to prove this for certain.

Mr McCann and his wife Kate, both 40, from Rothley, Leicestershire, said they would believe their daughter was still alive until shown concrete evidence to the contrary.

Last September Portuguese police named the couple as "arguidos", or formal suspects, in Madeleine's disappearance, but this status was lifted with the shelving of the case. Private detectives for the McCanns are now following up leads gleaned from the case files, including a series of possible links to Belgium and Holland.

In his latest blog on the official Find Madeleine website, Mr McCann wrote: "It is over three weeks since we learned that the Portuguese authorities had closed the investigation to find Madeleine, lifted our arguido status and ended judicial secrecy.

"We were surprised that copies of investigation files were given to the media. The content of these files has been extensively reported. It will be clear to everyone now, that there is absolutely no evidence that suggests Madeleine has been seriously harmed.

"Knowing this, we strongly believe that Madeleine is out there and can be found. Of course whoever is responsible for Madeleine's abduction must, and can be, found, to prevent them from putting another child and family through the misery we have suffered.

"We have always believed that this heinous crime could be solved with the help of the public. Our investigators continue to explore credible leads and will continue to do so as long as Madeleine is missing."