Despite a massive hunt for Madeleine McCann and a global campaign by her parents, there are few clues to the youngster's disappearance.

Away from her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, the attention focused on ex-pat businessman Robert Murat, who was declared an arguido last May.

But almost a year after he was given the status, no charges have been brought against him and he is currently suing a number of British media organisations over their coverage of the case.

In the early weeks the McCanns put pressure on the Portuguese police, even reportedly threatening legal action to force them to release a description of a man their friend Jane Tanner said she saw carrying a child on the night of Madeleine's disappearance.

Amid suggestions the investigation was drifting over the summer, British help was called in, with samples from the apartment sent to the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham, and specialist sniffer dogs sent over.

The coverage of the case reached a peak in early September, when the Policia Judiciaria (PJ) named Mr and Mrs McCann as arguidos, or formal suspects, in their daughter's disappearance.

The theory detectives appeared to be working on was that Mrs McCann accidentally killed Madeleine - possibly with an overdose - and covered up the death claiming she was abducted. She angrily denied the suggestion.

But it soon emerged there was not enough evidence even to justify re-interviewing the McCanns and the PJ's national director Alipio Ribeiro was later quoted as saying detectives had been "hasty" in declaring them arguidos.

The investigation was given fresh impetus with the arrival of a team of Portuguese detectives in Britain in April. They spent several days sitting in on fresh interviews with the Tapas Seven at the headquarters of Leicestershire Police.

The McCanns renewed their calls for the PJ to lift their arguido status following the interviews, saying the friends' stories had been consistent with what they had said before.

PR guru Max Clifford has described Madeleine's disappearance as "probably the biggest story of the last decade", while the McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, agrees it may be the "biggest human interest story ever".

He said the McCanns do not regret putting themselves in the public spotlight, even though some of the coverage has been painfully negative.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.