LONDON (AFP) - Holidaymakers who stayed at the resort where British toddler Madeleine McCann and her family were staying when she went missing have been asked to provide DNA samples and fingerprints to police, The Times reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper reported that it had obtained a letter from a senior British detective sent out to the tourists who stayed at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal, where the McCanns were vacationing when the girl went missing on May 3.

"I have now been asked by the Portuguese investigation team to arrange for DNA samples and fingerprints to be taken from holidaymakers living in the UK who were staying at the Ocean Club Resort," Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior wrote in the letter, according to The Times.

Prior added that the DNA and fingerprints "will help the Portuguese police to eliminate samples they have taken and not yet been able to identify."

He said in the letter that the operation was routine, and noted that any DNA samples that were submitted would not be added to any national database in Britain.

The Times also reported that tourists were being asked about their use of mobile phones at the resort, along with details about their movements and the clothes they were wearing on the day Madeleine disappeared.

Leicestershire Constabulary, where Prior is based, declined to confirm whether the appeal had been sent out, and also declined to confirm whether police across Britain were interviewing former guests at the resort.

Earlier this week, Portuguese police appointed a new head of their inquiry into Madeleine's disappearance, Paulo Rebelo, after his predecessor, Goncalo Amaral, was sacked last week for accusing British colleagues of siding with the girl's parents.

Portuguese police last month named Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry, as formal suspects after questioning them separately for hours and receiving the results of forensic tests carried out at a laboratory in England on items found in the holiday apartment and a car the couple rented. 

No charges have been filed against the couple, who strongly deny having played any role in the daughter's disappearance.