McCanns mark Madeleine's birthday "quietly"

LONDON (Reuters) - The parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann said they would be spending her fifth birthday "privately and quietly" at home.

"It will be one of the hardest days of the last 375," Kate and Gerry McCann said on their website.

Madeleine disappeared during a family holiday in Portugal on May 3 last year, shortly before her fourth birthday.

Her parents were eating at a nearby bistro when she disappeared from their apartment.

Despite a massive publicity appeal and police search, nothing has been found to indicate her whereabouts.

She has since had two birthdays, turning five on Monday.

The McCanns will mark the day with Madeleine's brother and sister, Sean and Amelie, at their Leicestershire home.

"We will be marking it privately and quietly," her parents said. We will do everything to try and ensure Madeleine does not spend another birthday separated from her family."

The couple said there had been a tremendous response to their latest appeal for information.