Police hunting for missing schoolgirl Sarah Payne were last night continuing to examine the body of a little girl found a few miles from where the eight-year-old disappeared.

The body was found in a field near an agricultural college at Pulborough, West Sussex, about ten miles north of where Sarah was believed to have been abducted on Saturday, July 1.

Assistant Chief Constable Nigel Yeo said the body, which was discovered just yards from the main A29 trunk road, was that of a "small female", but it had not been positively identified.

However a senior police source confirmed it was a little girl.

Sarah's family were told of the discovery by Detective Superintendent Alan Ladley, leading the hunt for the youngster, and family liaison officers from the force.

"The conversations between them and the officers must remain private, but we are seeking professional help to support them at this time," Mr Yeo told a press conference at Brinsbury College.

He said the death was being treated as suspicious but insisted Sarah's disappearance was still a separate missing persons inquiry.

Mr Yeo described the mood among his officers as "grim", adding: "Everyone shared a great degree of hope that we would find Sarah alive. There is a lot of sadness because whatever has happened, what we have down the road is a human tragedy, whoever it is."

The body was found in undergrowth yesterday morning by a man who was working locally, police said. The Sussex police inquiry team received a call at 11.02am.

Home Office pathologist Vesna Djurovic was now leading examinations of the body, but police have warned it could take several days to identify the girl.

Mr Yeo refused to say if the body had been clothed or naked, but said it had been partly covered and was well-concealed from the A29, which runs just ten yards from where the body was found.

He said there had been no obvious sign of injury and added that the identification process was likely to be very slow as scientists and officers carried out a detailed examination.

The body, which is understood to have been in situ for some time and is expected to remain there for at least another day, had been partly concealed, including the face.

White-suited scenes of crime officers were last night conducting fingertip searches for evidence in the overgrown field and the Sussex Police helicopter carried out overhead searches.

Police said they were interviewing the man who had found the body but were not yet seeking to interview two men who were arrested within days of Sarah vanishing from fields near East Preston, West Sussex. The youngster was playing with her brothers Lee, 13, Luke, 11, and six-year-old sister Charlotte when she hurt herself and decided to walk home alone.

Lee began to follow her and saw her leave the field, but detectives fear she was snatched as she walked along the secluded country lane towards her grandparents' home, less than 200 yards away.

They have been appealing for sightings of a white Transit-style van and silver Ford Mondeo which Lee Payne saw on the road at about the time that Sarah disappeared.

A local man was later quizzed by police for more than 60 hours before being released on bail pending further inquiries. A second man was also arrested but was released without charge.

Sarah's disappearance sparked a nationwide search with more than 20,000 members of the public calling police with information.

Police have been scouring the countryside, but the area where the body was discovered yesterday was outside the search "corridor" identified by police experts, who had advised searchers to focus on the A24 road from Worthing to Crawley.

Earlier in the inquiry, one of their strongest leads involved a possible sighting at Knutsford service station on the M6 in Cheshire just hours after she disappeared.

Sarah's parents, Michael, a welder, and Sara, a barmaid, both 31 and from Surrey, have made several emotional appeals for whoever took their daughter to bring her back.

They vowed they would stay in the Littlehampton area until she was returned to them safe and well.

The Payne family were last night understood to be coming to terms with yesterday's development, at Sarah's grandparents' home near East Preston