Prayers will be offered for missing Madeleine McCann on the fourth anniversary of her disappearance.

Friends and well-wishers will join Madeleine's family at Liverpool born Kate McCann's parish church of Our Lady of the Annunciation Bishop Eton, in Woolton, for a special service on Tuesday evening.

Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry, and her six-year-old twin siblings Amelie and Sean are expected to attend the service with grandparents, Brian and Susan Healy, who live in the Mossley Hill area of the city.

The McCann's will not be giving any interviews, however family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "It will be a private day marked with family and friends. The anniversary is normally a very low-key occasion at home for them."

Blonde Maddie was nearly four when she went missing from an apartment during a family holiday in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve on 3rd May 2007. 

To mark the little girl's eighth birthday, which falls on the 12th May, Kate's 384-page book, "Madeleine" will be published.

The ?20 book, all proceeds from which will go towards 'Madeleine's Fund', is the mum-of-three's account of her daughter's disappearance and the four-year hunt for her.

Speaking when the deal was announced, Kate, 43, said: ?There are several different reasons as to why I finally came to the decision with my husband Gerry to write and publish this book.

"Many factors needed to be given thorough and careful consideration, not least the impact of such a book on the lives of our three children. My reason for writing it is simple; to give an account of the truth.

"Publishing this book has been a very difficult decision and is one that we have taken after much deliberation and with a very heavy heart."