Kate and Gerry McCann have made an appeal to the Portuguese people for them to support their petition calling for a review of the case of their missing daughter Madeleine.

Since its launch in November 2010, more than 40,000 people have signed the petition, which asks for the authorities in Portugal and the UK to conduct an independent and transparent review of all the information regarding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Gerry McCann said: 'We need the authorities to do more. Our goal is to reach 100,000 signatures that would represent 100,000 people who want a review of the facts and suspects found at the time of the investigation. 'Reports and information received by the PJ during the first phase of the investigation may not have been reviewed in the best way, which meant that the data from the investigation was not reviewed correctly.'

Kate McCann added: 'We know we can only ask for the case to be reopened if we have new facts but given that the official investigation has now stopped it will be almost impossible for us to find these new facts that could lead to the reopening of the case.

'Therefore we appeal to the authorities, both Portuguese and English, to reassess the entire process so that we can find our daughter.'