HOME Secretary Theresa May has asked to meet Kate and Gerry McCann, signalling she intends to tell them she will order a new investigation into their missing daughter Madeleine.

Mrs May wrote to the McCanns last week asking them to come to the Home Office in what is being described as a ?positive step? by department officials.

A senior Home Office source said: ?The Home Secretary has already exchanged letters with Kate and Gerry about the case and will be meeting them shortly to discuss how the investigation is being taken forward. It would not be appropriate to pre-empt that meeting or give details of the work.?

A new team of detectives, most likely from Scotland Yard, could soon get the mammoth task of raking over all files from Portuguese detectives, police in Leicestershire and private investigators.

Since taking office, Mrs May has taken a close interest in the case. Her predecessor, Labour's Alan Johnson, last March ordered a costing of a review of evidence and the outline of how a new probe would work into finding out what happened to Madeleine, then three, of Rothley, Leics, who vanished from Praia da Luz on the Algarve in May 2007.

Sources say that Mrs May felt Mr Johnson made the right decision and the internal report is almost complete.

Mr Johnson acted after Jim Gamble, head of the Child Online and Protection Centre, wrote a report for the Home Office analysing police investigations here and in Portugal.

His report, which has not been released publicly, outlines how a new approach could produce new leads.