Madeleine McCann detectives are to interview 10 new witnesses in their search for the missing girl.
The witnesses have never been interviewed by British police before, but they have now been given the go ahead by the new Portuguese prosecutor, Ines Sequeira.
Officers in Faro are now scheduling the interviews, which will take place at the PJ police station in the town where four suspects were quizzed at the start of July.
Newspaper Jornal de Noticias said 10 witnesses are expected to be quizzed, including some who were questioned by Portuguese police after Madeleine vanished from her holiday apartment in Praia da Luz more than seven years ago.
The unnamed witnesses are expected to receive police summons in the next few days.
British police will sit in on the interviews but they will be led by Portuguese officers who will ask questions on their behalf.
Meanwhile, forensic experts are pressing on with testing DNA samples retrieved from the apartment from where Madeleine disappeared, the Mirror reports.
The forensic material includes hairs and pieces of the curtains. It emerged last week thatnearly 100 strands of hair tested during the original Madeleine McCann investigation were never DNA-matched.
Portuguese forensic experts analysed 444 hair strands they believed could hold the key to the youngster's May 3, 2007 disappearance. They found 432 were human and 12 non-human.
They were unable to DNA-match 98 of them and only obtained partial results from 19 of them.
Portuguese forensics expert Francisco Brizida, said: "I can't say for sure new DNA tests that didn't yield a conclusive result in 2007 could now yield an objective result.
"But technology nowadays allows us to go further than years ago in areas like genetic markers.
"Several possibilities are open. One could be that British police do the tests in Britain with British technology and another that the institute does them."