Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have applied for more funding for the search.
The Home Office confirmed that it is considering an application from the Metropolitan Police for more money to keep the probe, called Operation Grange, going.
A spokeswoman said: “The Home Office has provided funding to the Metropolitan Police for Operation Grange and the resources required are reviewed regularly with careful consideration given before any new funding is allocated.”
Kate and Gerry McCann during an appeal for information about Madeleine (John Stillwell/PA)
Government funding for the investigation has been agreed every six months, with £154,000 being granted from October last year until the end of March.
More than £11 million has been spent so far on the probe to find the missing girl, who vanished from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007, aged three.
Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, have vowed never to give up hope of finding their daughter.
In 2011 the Met Police launched its own investigation into what had happened to the toddler.