July 1, 2008 Portuguese officials: Madeleine probe not over yet Play video

(NECN: Portugal) - Portugal's Attorney-General says police have handed over their final report into the disappearance of British child Madeleine McCann, but officials have made no decision on whether to stop the investigation.

Three Portuguese newspapers are citing unidentified police sources saying the 14-month investigation has reached a dead end and the case is to be closed.

However, the Attorney-General said in a statement on Tuesday that prosecutors will examine the police report before deciding whether to end the investigation or undertake further inquiries.

The three - Correio da Manha, Jornal de Noticias and Expresso - said the Public Prosecutor's office would call off its search for the girl before August 15, when the customary official secrecy period covering the investigation ends.

Closing the case would mean that official suspects, including Madeleine's parents, would no longer be under formal investigation.

Police could reopen the case if new evidence were to emerge, the newspapers said.

The McCanns' family spokesman Clarence Mitchell, said earlier on Tuesday that he had received no confirmation of the reports yet.

Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal's southern Algarve region during a family vacation in May last year, a few days before her fourth birthday.

Detectives named her parents, Kate and Gerry, and local man Robert Murat as formal suspects in the case.

All denied involvement in Madeleine's

The McCanns, who launched an international campaign to find their daughter, returned home to central England with Madeleine's younger twin sister and brother last September, a few days after they were named as suspects.

Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell called on Portuguese police to lift their status as suspects, called arguido in Portugal, immediately.

He also said that if Portuguese police end their inquiry they should hand their files over to the McCanns' private investigators.

The case has drawn global interest. A few weeks after Madeleine vanished Pope Benedict XVI blessed the McCanns and a photo of their daughter during his weekly general audience at the Vatican.

British and Portuguese police have cooperated in the investigation. Sophisticated forensic tests on evidence gathered at the resort where the girl disappeared were carried out in Britain.

In April, British police in England, accompanied by Portuguese detectives, re-interviewed the McCanns' friends who were having dinner with them when Madeleine vanished.