Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3 last year

Gerry and Kate McCann will finally be told what evidence police have against them next month, Portugal's most senior law officer revealed yesterday.

The couple will be given full access to the confidential case files.

The development will be a massive boost to the couple as they arrived in Strasbourg to urge MEPs to back their campaign for a Europe-wide alert system.

Gerry and Kate believe such cross-border co-operation would have helped police find their daughter when she went missing from their holiday flat on the Algarve in May last year aged three.

Attorney general Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro told daily newspaper 24 Horas: "From July, the (Madeleine) case will cease to be covered by judicial secrecy, and will be available to consultation by all parties involved.

"I do not know which date, but in July the case ceases to be covered by judicial secrecy."

Access to the confidential police files will allow the McCanns to begin building a defence - and demand that they are cleared.

24 Horas speculated the judicial secrecy will end on July 14 - more than 10 months after the couple were named suspects.

The McCanns, both 40-year-old doctors from Rothley, Leics, were made official suspects last September but have never been arrested or charged and vigorously deny any wrongdoing.

Their official spokesman Clarence Mitchell has previously described the endless delays in the process as "inhumane".

Judicial secrecy is normally lifted in Portugal after eight months.

But investigating judge Pedro Frias has previously granted extensions to the period after state prosecutor Jose Magalhaese Menezes argued the case is "exceptionally complicated".

Madeleine disappeared from her family's rented holiday apartment in the Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz, on May 3 last year.

Her parents left Madeleine and twins Sean and Amelie, now two, sleeping while they dined at a nearby restaurant with seven holiday friends.

The McCanns still face the possibility of charges of neglecting their daughter.

Court documents revealed last month confirmed they could face "abandonment" charges, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.

It is understood that for such a charge to succeed, prosecutors would have to show the McCanns intended to neglect their daughter.

The police inquiry also covers possible abduction, homicide and concealment of a corpse.

Today a source at the court in Portimao told 24 Horas the case was not a priority.

The source said: "The Maddie case is not a priority. Nobody has been arrested. There is evidence of neglect or abandonment of the children, but that prosecution can wait."

The Portuguese authorities have previously been accused of using the secrecy laws to cover up their incompetence.

The President of the Portuguese Order of Lawyers, Antonio Marinho e Pinto, said: "There are strong reasons to fear that judicial secrecy is being used to conceal the fact that the police have gone down a blind alley and don't have a way out."

The McCann's lawyer Rogerio Alves reacted cautiously to the attorney general's statement, saying he understands he will not have access to the files until August.

Portugal's courts take a month long summer break from July 15.

Mr Alves told 14 Horas: "I'm not going to comment on the case, but the information we have is that we will only have access to the case in August."