Bea brings Sir Paul and Heather together in an embrace

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But the body language of both Paul McCartney and Heather Mills still showed a fair amount of awkwardness, hardly surprising after 18 months of bitter divorce wrangling.

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Working relationship: Heather's body language, says an expert, shows a softening of her attitude to Sir Paul

The highly-estranged couple were meeting purely so that Heather could hand over their three-year-old daughter Beatrice to her father as part of their shared custody agreement.

While the adults kept a reserved distance from each other - in a meeting that lasted less than 90 seconds - the little girl had no inhibitions about showing her emotions.

As Bea spotted her father she squealed with delight: "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy."

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Give us a hug: Sir Paul reaches out to his daughter

Smiling Sir Paul, 64, picked up his daughter and gave her a loving cuddle.

But he tensed as she reached out to put an arm around her mother's neck, almost as if she was trying to pull her parents together again.

The exchange happened in the fashionable Hamptons enclave in New York, where Sir Paul has a £10million waterside estate.

Heather, determined to look her best, had earlier taken Beatrice for some mother-daughter pampering at an upmarket beauty salon.

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That's my girl: Beatrice gets a lift into Daddy's arms

The 39-year-old chose to wear a brightly-coloured summer dress for the meeting with Sir Paul on the neutral territory of a railway station car park.

Former Oxford don Peter Collett, widely regarded as the UK's top body language expert, said: "What is most interesting is Heather's floppy hand gesture, a beautiful example of displaying submissiveness. She's showing him she has no ill intentions.

"She is clearly thinking the best way to handle him is to not be aggressive."

He also pointed out that there was virtually no eye contact between the couple, explaining: "It's a classic example of gaze avoidance which I suspect has something to do with an underlying feeling of embarrassment.

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Mummy too: Beatrice stretches an arm out to Heather

"A lot of water has flowed under the bridge - recriminations, accusations, bad tempers. There is a sense of shame here."

Dr Collett concluded: "This is a working relationship and has - I would say - been brought about by her softening of her relationship towards him."

The couple have thrashed out a divorce deal which will see Sir Paul pay Heather £70million over the years until Beatrice turns 18.