The two-bedroom flat became the centre of attention when the three-year-old went missing last May, sparking an unprecedented global manhunt.

Her parents Gerry and Kate held emotional press conferences in front of 5A in the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz in the days after their daughter went missing.

Portuguese police sealed off the property twice - with tourists staying there for two months last summer - before releasing the flat back to its owner after the case was closed with no result in July.

Now Liverpuddlian Ruth McCann - who is no relation to Madeleine - is said to be keen to sell and the property is on the market for ?250,000.

The retired teacher has handed over the keys to a local estate agent and potential buyers are expected to start viewing next week, according to the Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas.

A source at the unnamed estate agent said: "We should have the key by the end of this week. The owner is asking for 300,000 Euros for the flat."

 

The two bedroom apartment, which is 500 metres from the beach, dates back 20 years and is said to be targeted at the English market.

Madeleine was sleeping in one of the bedrooms with her younger twin siblings Sean and Amelie when she went missing on May 3 last year.

Her parents, from Rothley in Leicestershire, were dining with friends in a tapas bar nearby and it was Mrs McCann who raised the alarm after she discovered her eldest daughter's empty bed.

Forensic teams dusted the apartment shutters for fingerprints, while specialists took DNA samples from the furniture, but their inquiries proved inconclusive.

The apartment lay empty for a month after Madeleine disappeared but was then available to tourists throughout the summer, raising fears of contamination.

It was finally cordoned off last August after sniffer dogs that were trained to detect corpses and human remains were brought in from Britain.