The parents of Madeleine McCann insisted yesterday that they believed their daughter was still alive and that they had not even considered leaving Portugal as police continued the hunt for her abductor.

Kate and Gerry McCann said they were being sustained by the enormous international support received since Madeleine, four, was abducted from her bed at an Algarve holiday apartment 12 days ago.

Details of a fund to help to maintain the hunt for Madeleine will be announced this week by the couple, after the worldwide interest in their plight. It is believed that it will include plans to hire private investigators to help in the international search amid fears that their daughter may have been smuggled out of Portugal.

Mr McCann, a cardiologist from Leicester, said: “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.”

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His wife, a GP, said: “I can’t even consider going home at the moment, absolutely can’t even let it enter my head.”

Speaking outside the apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve where their daughter was abducted, Mr McCann said: “We have taken tremendous strength from the warmth and the spiritual outpouring that we have received here and all around the world.”

Mr McCann also praised the Portuguese police investigation even though officers admitted on Sunday that they had no suspects and that their key lines of inquiry had proved fruitless.

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