The only official suspect in the abduction of Madeleine McCann hopes that he will soon be cleared after a DNA sample was recovered from the bedroom from which she was taken 30 days ago.

The DNA sample is the first piece of scientific evidence showing that a stranger was in the room the night she vanished. It will be sent to Britain to be checked against the national database of convicted or suspected sex offenders. There is no such database in Portugal.

Forensic scientists have been unable to find any DNA linking Madeleine’s disappearance to Robert Murat, 33, a British father of one who lives in Praia da Luz with his mother. He hopes to receive official notification within days that he is no longer under suspicion.

The Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal (INML) has already compared the unidentified DNA sample with Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and their two-year-old twins, Amelie and Sean, who were asleep in the room with Madeleine when she vanished.

It was delivered formally to the police by Professor Francisco Cortareal, whose team of scientists has been analysing material from the McCann apartment and Mr Murat’s home.

Duarte Nuno Vieira, president of the INML, said: “We still have a number of samples to process so the work will continue next week. We will try to do it as quickly as possible.”

A source at the forensic science institute told the newspaper 24 Hours: “There is DNA which does not correspond to the family. It is an important step in the investigation but the truth is that the DNA collected does not have a ‘name’.

“In other words, we cannot make any connection between the material collected and the suspects we actually have. The evidence is very vague and doesn’t serve to sustain the accusations against the only arquido (official suspect) which exists in the case.

“This does not mean that Robert Murat cannot be incriminated, but there is a person in the room which it is, as yet, not possible to identify.”

Mr Murat, whose villa is less than 100 metres from the McCann holiday apartment, has been the only official suspect for more than two weeks. He had returned to Portugal three days before Madeleine’s abduction after visiting his estranged wife and their three-year-old daughter in Hockering, Norfolk..

Tuck Price, who is acting as Mr Murat’s spokesman, said: “Robert has not heard from the police for a week and a half. We expect the police to write to him and tell him he is no longer a suspect. Then he can clear his name.”

Under Portuguese law police can keep Mr Murat as an arqui-do for eight months, during which time he is forbidden from talking about the investigation under strict rules of judicial secrecy.

Mr Price said: “Robert knows he will only be cleared properly when Madeleine is found and the people who took her are caught. This is a small town and there will always be whispers until the police catch the people who did this. Then he can get on with his life again.”

One theory being investigated by Portuguese police is that Madeleine was abducted by an international paedophile ring that could have taken her to another country in Europe or North Africa.

Mr McCann said that there should be a European-wide response to child abductions. He said: “We do feel that perhaps these types of disappearances should be considered in a pan-European fashion, the same way that other EU movement of people is considered.”

His wife, a locum GP, acknowledged publicly for the first time that Madeleine could have been taken by a paedophile. She said: “It is a more upsetting scenario than any other.”

The couple said that they still hoped her abductor was someone who wanted a daughter of their own and would not harm her. Mrs McCann said: “We have no evidence to suggest that there has been any harm to Madeleine, that she is not alive and well.” Mr McCann, a consultant cardiologist, said: “We pray that she is being looked after and it is someone who wanted a little girl for their own who would look after her very well. We also pray that the person who has her gives her up voluntarily and drops her at a church or a safe place.”

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