KATE and Gerry McCann's fund to help find their missing daughter Madeleine saw its income drop by nearly two-thirds last year.

The amount raised for the cause fell from £629,181 in 2008-09 to £233,099 in 2009-10, newly-published accounts filed to Companies House show.

More than £421,000 was spent on the campaign to locate Madeleine and merchandise costs last year, leaving the balance standing at £470,034 at the end of March.

The McCanns, both 42, from Rothley, Leicestershire, spoke last month of their fears that the dwindling of the fund would leave them unable to continue paying private detectives to search for their daughter.

Madeleine's Fund was launched a fortnight after the little girl vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, southern Portugal, on May 3 2007. Exeter's Jane Tanner and Dr Russell O'Brien were with the couple at the time.

Donations flooded in from supporters around the world who wanted to do something to help her parents, and the income for 2007-08 totalled £1,846,178. Last year the fund paid for the private investigators, a telephone hotline for the public and the McCanns' legal battle to ban a book about what happened to Madeleine by former detective Goncalo Amaral.