'Madeleine will be back by Christmas'

LONDON: Madeleine McCann's abductors have finally been traced and she will be back with her parents by Christmas, an investigator has claimed.

The British toddler went missing from her parents' holiday apartment at Praia da Luz in Portugal on May three.

Francisco Marco, the private investigator searching for Madeleine, said that his Mtodo 3 detective agency had tracked down the group of pedophiles currently holding the British kid, the media reported on Friday.

"We know who kidnapped her but not where she is. We believe she is in an area not very far from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa."

"And we have a fairly certain idea of who she is with. I cannot say who she is with because we are putting together conclusive proof that we can present to the authorities so they can proceed with their arrests."

"God willing, I hope she'll be back with her parents before Christmas. I have to believe it 100 per cent because I know how to look for living people, not dead ones."

"I have no proof that Madeleine is alive. We have proof of her movements after her kidnap and we know that she was alive the day after her disappearance. We are not certain that she left Portugal. We are certain that the kidnappers left Portugal at a certain moment in time."

"I talk of certainties because we know which group may have her or could have kidnapped her to sell her on to others," Marco, the Barcelona-based agency's chief, was quoted as saying.

The Mtodo 3 detective agency is being paid 50,000 pounds every month by the public fund set up to find Madeleine after she had vanished from the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz nearly eight months back.