(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-20 16:29

MADRID -- The head of the Spanish private detective agency hired by the parents of missing toddler Madeleine McCann said Monday he was "certain" she was abducted and is alive.

The head of the Spanish private detective agency hired by the parents of missing toddler Madeleine McCann, seen here in an undated family handout, said Monday he was "certain" she was abducted and is alive. [Agencies]

"We believe with great certainty that Madeleine is alive and there are sufficient facts to conclude there was a kidnapping," the managing director of Barcelona-based Metodo 3, Francisco Marco, told radio Cadena Ser.

"I am speaking of the certain fact that two days after the girl went missing, she was seen with someone in the north of Portugal," he added.

Madeleine went missing from her family's vacation home in Praia da Luz in southern Portugal on May 3, just before her fourth birthday, as she slept with her two-year-old twin siblings. Her parents dined with friends nearby.

British media reported earlier Monday that a witness believes he saw the girl two days later in central Portugal with a woman who was later identified as the girlfriend of Robert Murat, the British man named in mid-May as the first official suspect in the case.

Murat, who lives with his mother 100 yards away from the spot where Madeleine was last seen, says he is innocent. He has not been charged.

Madeleine's parents, both doctors, returned to England in the beginning of September after they were also named as official suspects in the case by Portuguese police. They too have not been charged.

Marco would not comment on the latest reported sighting linking Madeleine to Murat's girlfriend, saying only he believes the girl was stolen by order from the family's holiday apartment.

"We are not talking about a kidnapping to obtain money from the McCanns, the McCanns don't have money to pay a huge ransom, we are talking about a different kind of kidnapping," he said.

Marco said an unnamed British millionaire was paying his fees.

The McCanns mounted an international campaign to find their daughter which involved celebrities like English footballer David Beckham.

While the blanket coverage in the British media has ended, there is still widespread interest in the case.