"We will never give up on Madeleine," said Kate McCann, reading from a joint statement in their first public reaction after Portuguese authorities confirmed that they had shelved the investigation into their daughter's disappearance.

"We welcome the news today, although it is no cause for celebration," she added, sitting next to her husband Gerry.

And they added: "We look forward to scrutinising the police files to see what has actually been done and more importantly what can still be done as we leave no stone unturned in the search for our little girl."

Their spokesman said earlier that the couple hope to get access to the Portuguese files within a week, after the case was shelved and the suspect status lifted on the McCanns and a third suspect, Robert Murat.

"It is hard to describe how utterly desprairing it was to be named arguidos (suspect) and subsequently portrayed in the media as suspects in our own daughter's abduction and worse," Kate McCann said.

"Equally it has been devastating to witness the detrimental effect this status has had on the search for Madeleine."

Madeleine, then aged three, vanished from an apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz, on the Algarve, on May 3, 2007 as her parents dined with friends at a nearby restaurant.

The couple, both medical doctors, initially vowed not to leave Portugal until they found her, but came back to England after being made formal suspects in the case.

Earlier their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the whole suspect status issue had been "a distraction," adding: "The main thing now is to get everything back onto finding Madeleine.

"The only thing they care about is finding their daughter," he added.