The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is reaching its end, the Portuguese justice minister announced today.

Alberto Costa said it was “premature” to say whether the investigation would reveal how Madeleine disappeared from an Algarve holiday resort 287 days ago.

However, he pointed out that British statistics showing that about 80 per cent of similar cases in the UK remained unresolved.

Madeleine’s parent’s, Kate and Gerry McCann, both doctors, said they hoped that they would be cleared as suspects in the disappearance of their daughter shortly before her fourth birthday.

Madeleine McCann: the key questions

Why are the "Tapas 9" key to solving the Madeleine mystery?

Related Internet Links

• The latest full coverage of Madeleine McCann

BACKGROUND

• McCanns consider interview bids

• Madeleine McCann: the global reaction

• The forgotten victim in the McCann case

Multimedia

• Pictures: searching for Madeleine

• Video: McCann family start holiday

Related Links

• Madeleine and Metodo 3: Private eyes, public lies

• McCann police meet to discuss evidence

Mr Costa told the Portuguese parliament: “We are at a phase where we are approaching the end of this procedure.” He rejected accusations that the nine month investigation, which has been marred by accusations of mistakes by Portuguese detectives, had been a failure.

“People are talking of an ultimate failure, they are suggesting failure ... I would say that that is premature,” he said.

Mr Costa had been summoned to parliament by opposition MPS to explain why Portugal’s top police officer had said officers were too “hasty” in making Mr and Mrs McCann suspects. Alípio Ribeiro, the national director of the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), said there “perhaps should have been another assessment” before this happened.

Mr Costa said there was no indication that Mr Ribeiro had broken Portugal’s secrecy laws banning public discussion of ongoing cases.

“If there was any such sign ... I am sure an inquiry would have been opened, and it hasn’t been,” he told Portuguese MPs.

The justice minister has previously backed Mr Ribeiro, telling reporters last week: “The fact that (he) is still in his job indicates what I think about that matter.”

The minister described the many leaks in the case, which apparently came from Portuguese officials, as “worrying”. “It would be good if people could show self-restraint,” he said.

Portuguese police named Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, as formal suspects in their daughter’s disappearance on September 7, but they strenuously protest their innocence. Portuguese police had suspected that Madeleine was accidentally killed in the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz before her parents illegally disposed of her body.

Times Recommends

• Tehran cannot live up to its rhetoric
• The new unicycle that will ‘change the world’
• We cannot wish away Iran’s bomb