Relatives of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann last night said that charges against her parents by Portuguese police - which could come within 10 days - would let them clear their name.

Madeleine's aunt Philomena McCann, from Ullapool, said that the decision by the Algarve public prosecutor to hand the case file over to a judge changed nothing as far as her family was concerned.

"That was expected. It doesn't change a thing," she said. "We will have to wait and see if they are bringing charges or not."

Ms McCann, who is Gerry McCann's sister, added: "If they bring charges against Kate and Gerry, that will give them a chance to clear their name. It will give us a chance to end all this speculation."

As the 1000-page dossier changed hands over the course of the day from the police to the prosecutor, Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses, and then to an instructional judge, speculation continued to centre on exactly what Portuguese police found in the hire car rented by Madeleine's parents 25 days after she went missing.

Detectives issued an official denial of reports that forensic tests on a sample taken from the vehicle, a silver Renault Scenic, had revealed a "100% match" with the missing girl's DNA.

But reports said senior sources linked to the investigation who briefed Portuguese media said they discovered "bodily fluids" - not blood - with an 88% match to Madeleine's genetic profile in the car's boot.

The sample was taken from the boot, where the spare tyre is kept, the sources said.

Police searching the car also found so much of Madeleine's hair that it could not have been transferred from a blanket or clothes and must have come directly from her body, the journalists were told.

British forensic experts have already rubbished the concept of an "88% match" for DNA.

Police are also reported to be planning fresh searches in Praia da Luz, including digging around the village church of Nossa Senhora da Luz.

The road was being dug up when the young girl disappeared.

Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39, were yesterday visited by Leicestershire Police's head of CID, Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Small. He spent around an hour with the family before leaving in an unmarked car.

Meanwhile, Mr McCann's employers said they would discuss his return to work as a consultant cardiologist at the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester "at the appropriate time".

Madeleine's parents, who are both doctors, returned from Portugal on Sunday, having been named as formal suspects in the case two days earlier. Mr McCann used his blog on the official Find Madeleine website to assert that he was "100% confident" his wife was innocent and spoke of the "unending nightmare" of the past week.

In an emotionally charged entry, he wrote: "We always hoped that we would not have to return without Madeleine and could never have imagined the possibility that we would do so as suspects in our own daughter's disappearance. The pain and turmoil we have experienced in this last week is totally beyond description.

"Kate and I are totally 100% confident in each other's innocence and our family and friends have rallied round unflinchingly to support us."