Search continues for missing UK girl in Portugal

LISBON, May 5 (Reuters) Police in Portugal continued a search today for a three-year-old British girl believed to have been kidnapped from her bed in a Portuguese beach resort while her parents dined nearby.

Madeleine McCann's parents, who were on holiday in the Algarve with friends, made an emotional appeal late yesterday for their daughter to be let go.

''Words cannot describe the anguish and despair that we are feeling,'' Gerry McCann said in a televised statement from the Algarve resort, flanked by his wife Kate.

''Please, if you have Madeleine, let her come home to her Mummy, Daddy, brother and sister.'' A police source said their inquiries were leading increasingly to the possibility that she had been kidnapped.

The McCanns had put her to bed and were dining 50 metres away with friends when she vanished on Thursday night from the apartment where they were staying.

She was with her twin brother and sister, who were asleep when the parents returned and found her missing.

Yesterday police were joined by sniffer dogs. Rescue services provided boats and a helicopter to search the resort village with a population of about 1,000. Britain's ambassador to Portugal has travelled to the Algarve to help the family.

REUTERS DS SSC1357