[Gareth]

The Scotsman (article) has a piece saying that the focus of the investigation has shifted from the child being kidnapped to her being accidentally killed in the apartment.

Portuguese newspapers reported detectives suspect the four-year-old was not abducted, but was accidentally killed in the holiday flat on 3 May.

Last night, a statement from a Portuguese police spokesman

said: "There are some indications she had not been alive when she was taken."

But he added the theory that she was alive when she was taken could not be discounted. He said other people could be interviewed by the end of the week.

Diario De Noticias, a respected broadsheet, said Portuguese detectives had known for the past month that Madeleine had died on 3 May, and it said they had "definitively abandoned" the kidnapping theory.

The newspaper Jornal De Noticias reported that one sniffer dog detected traces of blood on a wall at the family apartment, while another dog picked up the scent of a dead body. The blood traces are being examined by DNA specialists and tested against Madeleine's genetic profile.

The Jornal De Noticias reported: "The discoveries made by the sniffer dogs strongly support the theory that [Madeleine] died in her parents' hotel room, either - as Portuguese detectives believe - the victim of an unexplained accident, or the victim of a crime. The theory that she was kidnapped seems more and more remote."

Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, of the investigative Policia Judiciara, said it was the "official position" that the McCanns were not suspects.