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PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal - Portuguese police have identified a suspect in their investigation of the kidnapping of a four-year-old British girl but do not have enough evidence for an arrest, police said today.
Police were following a strong lead to find Madeleine McCann, who disappeared 12 days ago from her bedroom in a resort hotel in the Algarve, they said.
"The judicial police continue to follow the strongest lead and we hope that in the short term there will be more developments," chief inspector Olegario Sousa told a news conference.
Police searched a villa yesterday close to the complex from where Madeleine went missing more than a week ago and took a British man, Robert Murat, away for questioning. Police returned to the villa today.
Sousa did not identify the suspect but said he was a 33-year-old who lived in the area.
"The evidence collected is being analysed and we hope it will shed more light on the investigation," Sousa said. "A criminal investigation is very dynamic and at any time it can show up new facts."
A total of five properties in the area were searched and two other people had been questioned as witnesses in what Sousa called the investigation's strongest lead. He said it centred on the area of Praia da Luz itself.
Murat often spoke to reporters in the days just after the disappearance of Madeleine, saying she looked like his daughter in England. His mother's house, 'Casa Liliana', is about 150 metres from the resort apartment where the McCann family was staying when their daughter disappeared.
Sousa would not speculate about Madeleine.
"Only when we have facts to confirm how she is will we tell you," he said, when asked if he thought she was still alive.
Kate and Gerry McCann, the girl's parents, said on Monday they continued to believe their daughter would turn up alive. They have received widespread support in their hunt, including offers of rewards for information about Madeleine's whereabouts of up to 3 million euros.
Madeleine, who turned four on Saturday, disappeared from her hotel bedroom in Praia da Luz 12 days ago while her parents dined about 50 yards away.
- REUTERS
