The 41-year-old mother has been keeping a low profile for months but has now decided that she wants to take a more active part in the effort to find her daughter, who would now be six.

Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve on May 3, 2007.

Kate will join her husband Gerry for a series of face-to-face interviews with the BBC and ITV.

And in a new move they will also speak to several Portuguese TV journalists who are flying to London later this week to interview the couple.

Kate and Gerry, of the village of Rothley in Leicestershire, hope that emotional appeals broadcast in Portugal could persuade someone to come forward with vital information and have employed a Portuguese press officer to help them get their message over.

The woman press officer is also helping the couple deal with the Portuguese press over their long-running legal battle with former local police chief Goncalo Amaral, who is being pursued for £1million damages over a book he wrote about the case, which has been banned.

Last month Kate travelled to Lisbon to meet her Portuguese lawyers and also gave a brief interview to Portuguese TV, saying she cried every day for Madeleine. It was her first trip back to Portugal in two years.

Both she and Gerry intend to make a ­private visit to Praia da Luz in the coming months.

Now that the McCanns’ twins, Sean and Amelie, are at school, Kate is finding she has more time to spend on the hunt for Madeleine.