Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007, while on holiday with her family in Portugal. She is now six years old.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has thrown its support behind a new initiative to find missing UK girl Madeleine McCann.

British police have posted a new online video message, supported by the AFP, aimed at anyone who knows the person who was involved in the disappearance of Madeleine.

The UK and Australian police, as well as other global law enforcement agencies, are asking the public to help spread the message by watching the video and sending it to their friends or placing links to the video on any websites they may operate.

The video can be viewed on the website of the UK's national police centre for protecting children - the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre (www.ceop.police.uk).

Head of CEOP Jim Gamble said the person that police are looking to reach is likely to be a partner, family member, friend or colleague of the person or people involved in Madeleine's disappearance.

"It is also highly probable that they, or someone close to them, is using the internet to search for any updates that may suggest the police are getting closer to discovering the truth," Mr Gamble said.

"Today, we want to deliver a message to that person and we're asking everyone who goes online to help us."

Mr Gamble said the police wanted the message to become so widespread that it becomes just one click from any Madeleine search as a constant reminder to that person that it is never too late to do the right thing.

"Do everything you can to spread it around the online world," he said.

AFP national manager for economic and special operations, Mandy Newton, said the AFP supported the online initiative.

"A lot of Australian families have to deal with their own anguish and uncertainty of missing relatives and friends," Assistant Commissioner Newton said.

"Each year 35,000 people are reported missing in Australia - that is one person every 15 minutes."

The message can be viewed at www.ceop.police.uk in seven different languages - English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.