It is now 38 days since the four-year-old was taken from her bed in the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

Despite an unprecedented publicity drive and trips across Europe by Kate and Gerry McCann to highlight their daughter's disappearance, there is still no sign of her.

A family spokesman said it was impossible for the McCanns to contemplate going back to the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, UK.

"They don't put a specific timescale on it but they are prepared to live here until the end of the summer at the very earliest, " he said. "As far as they are concerned, this is where Madeleine still is. Even if she is somewhere else physically, this is the place where mentally they make a connection. They can't go from here."

The McCanns will travel to Morocco today on the last of their trips to raise awareness of Madeleine's abduction. They are keen to go because of its proximity to Portugal. Several ferries a day leave from Tarifa in Spain for the 35minute crossing to Tangiers.

Morocco has surfaced repeatedly in the hunt for Madeleine - whose grandmother is from Co Donegal - with a reported sighting of a little girl with a man.

Mari Olli, a Norwegian woman who lives in Fuengirola, Spain, said she was "very sure" she had seen Madeleine at a petrol station in Marrakech on 9 May.

On Friday, the search was linked to South America for the first time. It is understood a mysterious call claiming to know Madeleine's whereabouts came from a mobile phone registered in Argentina.

The "credible" call was considered so potentially significant that the McCanns halted their search of Europe to help police investigate.

The call from the payas-you-go phone came from a man who wanted to speak directly to the McCanns but all attempts to reestablish contact failed, according to Spanish police sources.