Hartlepool girl Katrice Lee went missing from a Naafi supermarket in Germany on her second birthday in 1981.

Today, as thousands of supporters of the search join her father Richard in marking her disappearance and also her 29th birthday, the determined dad vowed: "We will hopefully have an answer in the future.

"One thing people can't take away from us is hope – and hope is something this family have bags of."

Mr Lee, from Belle Vue Way, Hartlepool, will release a balloon to commemorate the day the toddler vanished.

He believes that the youngster was snatched, and has campaigned for years to find her.

The 59-year-old said: "You just learn to live with it each day. How can it go away? She is a member of my family who is missing.

"If it was your child would you give up hope? The answer is you would never give up hope.

"At the end of the day I hope she is having a good life, but I still want her back."

Mr Lee, who was serving with the British Army at the time of the disappearance, said he had always refused to believe the German police's theory that Katrice had fallen into the River Lippe.

"Underneath all this from day one we have said she was abducted," he said.

Mr Lee, now a postman, said his daughter Natasha, who now lives in Gosport, Hampshire, had set up a support page on a networking website and thousands of people from as far as Canada have joined in the search.

They will also be releasing a balloon today "to wish Katrice happy birthday", added the concerned dad.

"She's got a lot of support around the world. It's unreal."Mr Lee featured in the Mail in May after there were three possible sightings of Katrice after her case featured on the BBC's Missing Live programme and showed a digital projection of what Katrice might look like as a 29-year-old.

The information was passed on to the police.

"It's a step in the right direction," he said.

"We are not looking for a two-year-old any more."

Anyone with information about a missing person can call the Missing People charity confidentially on the 24-hour freephone (0500) 700 700.