Maria: Police Investigate Lisa Irwin Lead

A baby who went missing in Kansas is being linked to the young girl allegedly abducted by a Roma family in Greece.

The parents of Lisa Irwin, who went missing in October 2011, contacted Greek authorities in the hope that the girl known as Maria could be their daughter.

An official request has been made through the FBI and Interpol to the Greek authorities for Lisa's DNA profile to be compared with Maria's DNA.

Lisa was only 11 months old when she disappeared from Kansas City.

Her parents believe she was kidnapped and have set up a website offering a $100,000 (£62,000) reward as part of their efforts to find her.

The American girl would be turning three in November. However, Greek police believe Maria is five or six years old.

Lisa's family contacted Sky News by email and said "because of the physical similarities between Lisa and Maria we have contacted the authorities here, as well as overseas, and are waiting for their responses".

The mystery blonde girl was discovered living in a Roma camp near the Greek town of Farsala on Wednesday after a raid by police who were looking for drugs and weapons.

A Roma couple have been formally charged with abducting the girl.

Hristos Salis, 39, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, have claimed the girl's biological mother gave them the little girl as a baby because she could not look after her.

They deny charges of abduction and procuring false documents relating to the girl's birth certificate.

DNA tests have confirmed the couple are not her biological parents.

The case has prompted Greece's supreme court to order the investigation of all birth certificates issued since 2008 on the basis of a signed declaration by parents rather than those issued after births recorded at a hospital.

"The Maria case may not be an isolated incident and this could have happened in other parts of the country," a court prosecutor's order said.

Maria, who utters just a few words in Greek and Roma dialect, is being cared for in Athens by the Greek charity Smile Of The Child and is said to be "doing well".

Spokesman Panagiotis Pardalis told Sky News that Maria was still in hospital and waiting for medical examinations to be completed.

The charity has been inundated with more than 8,000 calls about the girl from around the world.