'Solution' due in Madeleine probe

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Portugal's attorney-general Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro will announce a "solution" to a case that has gripped the world since the young girl vanished on May 3 last year.

Prosecutors are expected to shelve the inquiry and reports suggest they will lift the McCanns' status as "arguidos" or official suspects.

But hours before Mr Pinto Monteiro's announcement, the former head of the Portuguese police investigation reaffirmed his belief that Madeleine died inside her parents' holiday flat.

The McCanns, both 40, from Rothley, Leicestershire, strenuously deny any involvement in their daughter's disappearance and say they will continue to believe she is alive until given firm evidence to the contrary.

Former detective Goncalo Amaral, who was removed from the inquiry last October after criticising British police, will publish a book containing allegations against the McCanns on Thursday.

He told BBC News: "The evidence that we had gathered by the time that I left the case, pointed to the girl being dead - and having died inside the apartment. I don't know what happened next. I can't say. We'll have to wait for the case files to be made public."

Mr Amaral said the decision to make the McCanns arguidos was taken by a number of officials and did not amount to a "persecution".

"In this case, it wasn't purely and simply a decision taken by police officers - Portuguese and British police," he said.

"There were others involved - public prosecutors and the national directorate of the Portuguese police. They all knew there was a necessity to put everything on the table, in light of the advances we had made...the combination of leads we had. There was no persecution. The police don't want to persecute anyone, just to investigate what happened in a given case."