A source told the newspaper: "This is an important new line of inquiry which could provide an explanation on whether Madeleine was abducted and transported away.
"It raises hope that she could still be alive."
It is understood that current funding for the investigation will enable it to run until April, when it is due to reviewed again.
Madeleine was three years old when she went missing from the holiday apartment at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.
Portuguese police, working in co-operation with Scotland Yard, reopened the investigation in 2013 amid talk of fresh leads but last year the Metropolitan Police announced it had reduced the number of officers it had working on the case from 29 to four.
Last year, the Government also revealed that the investigation, code-named Operation Grange, had cost more than £10million (NZ$17.8 million).
Forensic investigations into the disappearance were concluded in August after the final scientific tests carried out three months ago "didn't take the police forward".
Met Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe announced in May that the investigation would come to an end after one last line of inquiry was looked into.
At the time, then-Home Secretary Theresa May granted the team £95,000 (NZ$169,302) to keep the investigation going.
Detectives have explored dozens of theories since she vanished, including allegations she was kidnapped by a paedophile gang, killed during a botched burglary or snatched and sold by child traffickers.
But despite 9,000 potential sightings all over Europe and even further afield the police are no closer to solving the mystery.
