Madeleine's parents travel to Spain

The parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann have arrived in Spain to continue their campaign of raising awareness about the disappearance of their four-year-old daughter.

Gerry and Kate McCann arrived in Madrid on Friday. The visit follows the couple's trip to Rome, where they attended an audience with Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday.

The couple, who are both devout Catholics, talked with the pontiff on the steps of St Peter's Square and he blessed a photograph of Madeleine.

The McCanns met with high-level officials in Madrid, as well as giving a series of television interviews, including an appearance on a show which focuses on missing children. They want to raise the issue of child abduction generally, as well as highlight their daughter's disappearance.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, the McCanns said that they hoped that Madeleine was being cared for by someone who wanted a daughter of their own and who would give the four-year-old back voluntarily.

They also said that they believed she may have been taken to Spain after being abducted.

The couple are also planning to travel to Germany and the Netherlands in order to raise awareness of their campaign, as well as travel to Morocco, where a number of alleged sightings of Madeleine have been reported.

This week, the family released video footage of Madeleine, taken at the airport as they headed off on holiday to Portugal.

The footage, which was taken on a mobile phone, showed the four-year-old dressed in pink and carrying a Barbie rucksack, walking up to an aircraft at East Midlands airport, as well as footage showing her sitting on an airport shuttle bus at Faro airport in the Algarve.

Madeleine had travelled to the Mark Warner Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz in Portugal on April 28 with her parents, her two-year-old twin siblings Sean and Amelie and a group of friends.

She disappeared from the family's holiday apartment on May 3.

(KMcA/SP)