Keep looking for Madeleine, family urge police

LONDON, Sep 8 (Reuters) Family and friends of Kate and Gerry McCann urged Portuguese police today to eliminate the couple from their inquiries and to return to the hunt for their missing daughter Madeleine.

Portuguese police on Friday named the McCanns as suspects in their investigation into the four-year-old's disappearance, after hours of questioning, their lawyer confirmed.

''If this is what it takes to speed up the process of absolutely exonerating Gerry and Kate, let's get on with it,'' Gerry's brother John McCann told BBC radio.

''I hope the police can move quickly, bring whatever evidence they have got, and discuss with Gerry and Kate just exactly why they think what they think.'' The couple were questioned separately by police yesterday, with Gerry McCann leaving the police station at around midnight, having arrived for questioning just after his wife left in the afternoon.

Kate was also questioned for about 11 hours on Thursday.

Philomena McCann, Gerry's sister, told Sky News police had offered Kate McCann a reduced sentence if she admitted killing her daughter.

''They are suggesting that Kate in some way accidentally killed Madeleine and kept her body and then got rid of it.

''I have never heard anything so utterly ludicrous in my entire life,'' she told Sky News yesterday.

No charges have been brought against the McCanns, who began their high profile campaign to find their daughter after she went missing from their holiday apartment in the Praia da Luz resort in the Algarve region in May.

Under Portuguese law, declaring the McCanns as suspects indicates police believe they may have been involved in the crime but does not necessarily mean they will be detained.

They have more legal protection than as witnesses, including the right not to answer questions.

Justine McGuinness, a spokeswoman for the couple, said Kate had told her that police found blood in a car hired by the couple but there was no confirmation that it was Madeleine's blood.

The car had been hired 25 days after the toddler disappeared.

Police received results this week of forensic tests on evidence from various sites including the holiday apartment from which Madeleine vanished.

Police had pursued a series of leads, including that Madeleine might have been taken by a paedophile.

Kate and Gerry decided to stay in Praia da Luz until the case was resolved, and have been attending a local church almost daily to pray for their daughter's safe return.

The only other suspect is a Briton living in Praia da Luz, who has not been arrested. His house has been searched twice.

REUTERS LPB PM1717