The police scrubland search for Madeleine McCann may have to be widened to include two new zones, both in the Praia da Luz area.
The British police said today that it had permission until the Friday 6 June to use sniffer dogs and geo-radar equipment at the current search site and have no plans as yet to continue beyond this deadline.
The search may be widened while carrying on with the current search at the first site, which so far has revealed nothing of interest.
Extending the search area will need permission from the Portuguese authorities whose police have been overseeing the search.
British police officers have employed local council staff who have been using bush cutters to clear certain areas of scrubland.
Intensive finger-tip searches have been carried by officers out to no avail.
There are many more journalists and film crew members at the Praia da Luz site than there are police officers and all efforts are being taken to allow the police to do their work uninterrupted. Despite this, TV footage has been appearing on news channels all day.