The parents of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann today insisted they believed their daughter was still alive.

Taking questions from journalists for the first time since Madeleine went missing from their holiday apartment in the Algarve 11 days ago Gerry and Kate McCann said they believed their daughter was safe and well.

They said they had drawn "tremendous strength from the warmth and the spiritual outpouring that we have received here and all around the world" since their ordeal began.

“As far as we are concerned, until there is concrete evidence to the contrary, we believe that Madeleine is safe and being looked after and that’s how we can continue in our efforts," said Mr McCann, a consultant cardiologist from Rothley, in Leicestershire.

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Asked how and he and his family were coping - Madeleine's disappearance has caused the largest police investigation in Portuguese history, with hundreds of officers and several international agencies on the lookout for the child - Mr McCann appeared taken aback before replying: "It's obviously been extremely difficult. We have had excellent help from a... trauma consultant who has enabled us to utilise tools to help us look forward, to avoid the thoughts that are negative and to try and put the speculation out of our heads."

His wife, who was holding Madeleine’s favourite cuddly toy and has appeared weakened by the strain of the prolonged investigation, said: "We can't even consider coming home at the moment, absolutely can't even let it enter my head."

Mr and Mrs McCann, who are staying with their other children, twin toddlers Sean and Amelie, in a villa yards from where their daughter disappeared on May 3 in Praia da Luz, said their main intention, apart from supporting the police investigation was now to look after themselves and maintain the extraordinary publicity campaign that has surrounded the absence of Madeleine. "We do of course wish to keep communicating with the media," said Mr McCann.

Thanking the throng of British journalists that has followed the case since it began, he added: "The family and close friends back at home, in contact with us, are doing everything that we feel is in our power to keep the publicity high, that has been our thrust and main activity at this time."

Mr McCann referred to various offers of help, "including financial pledges", that have been made to the family to help in the search for their daughter and thanked their lawyers for helping to deal with them. Earlier today, the International Family Law Group, which is advising the McCanns, announced that a "fighting fund" had been set up to help pay for the costs of the search and their enforced stay in Portugal.

A statement from the lawyers revealed that members of the public should be able to contribute to the fund later this week: “Details of how contributions can be made to help get Madeleine back to the safety of her own family will be made available in the next couple of days.”

Mr McCann said: “Since the lawyers have come here we have visibly felt a burden being lifted from our shoulders because it is one less thing that we now have to immediately think about and how should we co-ordinate it.

“This has allowed us to concentrate more on our own physical and mental well-being. We do need to spend more time at this point considering ourselves, our family, for Sean and Amelie, and contemplate this situation that we are in.”

Since the search of the area immediately surrounding Praia da Luz was called off late last week, Portuguese police say they have focused on three main lines of inquiry in the search for Madeleine, of which one is the theory that she was abducted for sexual purposes. They are interviewing guests who have stayed at the Mark Warner resort in the village for the last four weeks and are scouring holidaymakers' photographs for suspicious details.

This week, witnesses and friends of the McCanns are expected to give statements to a Portuguese court which will enable them to return to the UK. Their statements will be used in any upcoming court cases and will have the same standing as live testimony. Police have stressed that the McCanns and their friends are witnesses rather than suspects in the case.

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