The parents of Madeleine McCann have been told that police have no immediate plans to summon them for a fresh interview, it was confirmed last night.

Gerry and Kate McCann were also informed by a prosecutor in Portugal that detectives could also be following "other lines of inquiry" apart from them.

The couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, are to remain officially suspects - or "arguidos" - in the case, but they have also been told that there are no plans to impose new bail restrictions on them.

It is thought that the suggestion that police could follow other lines of inquiry may mean that detectives are continuing to keep an open mind despite the McCanns' status as official suspects.

The couple were formally declared suspects in the disappearance of their four-year-old daughter less than two weeks ago before they left Portugal to return to the UK.

But they were not the first to be declared arguidos by police - 33-year-old Robert Murat was made a suspect in May and remains so.

Both Mr and Mrs McCann and Mr Murat vigorously deny any suggestion that they were involved in Madeleine's disappearance from her family's rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve on May 3.

Last night. the family's official spokesman, Clarence Mitchell said that Mr and Mrs McCann welcomed the announcement.

He said: "Clearly this information will need to be assessed very carefully by Gerry and Kate's Portuguese lawyer but, on the face of it, it appears to be encouraging."

A statement from prosecutor Luis Bilro Verao said tlast night that no new evidence justifying fresh interviews had been gathered since the McCanns were last questioned by detectives from Portugal's Policia Judiciaria (PJ) in the town of Portimao on September 7.

Both Kate and Gerry McCann were questioned for several hours at the PJ headquarters in Portimao before they returned to the UK.

It was during those interviews that the couple were declared official suspects.

Mrs McCann was asked by detectives whether she had killed Madeleine accidentally.

Forensic tests indicated the possible presence of Madeleine's DNA in the couple's hire car which was used several weeks after Made-leine's disappearance.

The suggestion was that Madeleine may have been accidentally killed and her body disposed of using the car.

But friends of the family revealed this week that the vehicle had been used by numerous blood relatives of Madeleine who would have similar DNA profiles.

When the McCanns moved out of their Mark Warner Holidays apartment to a private rented villa, all of their possessions were packed into the back of the car, including items such as Madeleine's flip-flops which may have had traces of DNA from her sweat on them.

As many as 30 people, many of them members of the family, were in the car at different times over the period of the move and friends say that DNA traces could have come from family members rather than Madeleine.

The couple were allowed to return to Britain after being declared suspects without having any bail restrictions placed on them.

They simply had to give their address in Rothley before being allowed to return home.

Last night's statement from the prosecutor reaffirms that position without adding any new bail conditions.

The prosecutor's statement added that inquiries were continuing and that no line of investigation was being ruled out.