Parents of missing British girl not to be questioned anew

Parents of a British girl will not immediately face new police questioning over their daughter's fate.

Photo: Parents of missing British girl not to be questioned anew

Gerry and Kate McCann have been named as suspects in the case by Portuguese prosecutors, but have been told not to expect to be questioned again immediately by detectives in the immediate future.

The public prosecutor's office said in a statement that, with no new evidence in the case gathered, "further questioning has not been ordered." But no lines of investigation had been excluded, the statement said.

"Clearly this information will need to be assessed very carefully by Gerry and Kate's Portuguese lawyer but, on the face of it, it appears to be encouraging," family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said.

The couple will remain official suspects in the case, prosecutors said.

Their daughter Madeleine, then 3 years old but now 4, vanished from a resort while her parents were dining at a restaurant nearby on May 3.

Forensic tests conducted at a government laboratory in Britain found evidence indicating that DNA from Madeleine was in the trunk of a rental car the parents used after her disappearance.

However, Portugal's national police chief, Alipio Ribeiro, said last week that the forensic tests on the car were not conclusive, and that he expected the investigation to continue.