Portuguese police 'to seize diary from Kate McCann'

London: Portuguese police are planning to visit Britain to seize Kate McCann's updated diary, it has been claimed.

They will arrive this month to interview Gerry and Kate McCann and the friends who dined with them on the night Madeleine disappeared.

Detectives have applied to examine the diary, which contains Kate's thoughts over the eight months since her daughter vanished in the Algarve.

Officers took it without Kate's permission in the summer, made a photocopy and then returned it. She has been updating it ever since. Portuguese police, in a series of leaks in the summer, suggested the diary was important because it showed Kate's unbalanced state of mind - a claim dismissed as a smear.

Sources close to the McCanns, both doctors from Rothley in Leicestershire, point out the diary was only started after Madeleine vanished aged three from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz and contains no relevant information to the inquiry. Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha claimed that letters requesting police seize the diary a second time would be handed in at a court in Portimao and could be executed this month.

A source close to the McCanns said today: "If they want access to the updated diary, they can ask her for it but it is a matter for Kate to decide. It is very personal property."