Police hunting missing Sarah Payne today discovered a young girl's body in a field in Sussex.

A member of the public reported the sighting at 11.30am and within minutes officers from Operation Maple, the search for eight-year-old Sarah, were at the scene.

Sarah's parents were warned to brace themselves for the worst news, but Sussex Police stressed the body had not been identified.

Assistant Chief Constable Nigel Yeo, heading the hunt, said: "Someone, sadly, is about to receive some sad news today, possibly the Payne family.

"Police officers have gone to warn Sarah's family. We cannot confirm the identity of the body at this stage, but obviously this is a tragedy for somebody."

He said the area was being cordoned off and experts, including pathologists, would visit the scene to gather evidence before the body was moved.

Chief Insp Mike Alderson said: "We have found the body of a little girl just off the A29."

The body was discovered in a field near Brinsbury Agricultural College, close to Pulborough.

It lies ten miles north of Arundel, close to the corridor police have been concentrating their efforts on in recent days.

Sarah went missing in the early evening of Saturday, July 1, after playing with her siblings in fields close to their grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, near Ferring.

Sussex Police mounted the biggest investigation of its type in a desperate hunt for the eight-year-old, with sightings of her reported from across the country and as far away as Israel.

Her parents, brothers and sister have pleaded for her safe return. This morning her family, who have constantly said they are confident she is alive and well, said they needed to take a back seat in the hunt to gain some emotional respite.

Police concentrated on finding a white van seen at the time she disappeared along Peak Lane.

The police operation has involved 300 officers, a tenth of the entire Sussex force.

The discovery of the body was announced two hours after the regular police press briefing at Littlehampton police station. Police have taken more than 21,000 calls, about three times more on a daily basis than they would usually handle.

The Argus and other newspapers have offered a reward of more than £65,000 for information about the missing youngster's whereabouts.

Sarah's parents, Sara and Michael, visiting West Sussex from their home in Surrey, have made constant public appearances talking about their "little princess" to try to jolt memories of people who might have seen something.

Earlier today, police revealed they had received new information over the weekend about a white van which had proved crucial in backing up earlier evidence.

Assistant Chief Constable Nigel Yeo said police had been told of "a very good sighting of a white van which confirmed something we already had".

Mr Yeo said the new sighting of the van was made by a person who had been leaving a house to go on holiday and had recently returned from abroad.

"It's someone who can actually tend to confirm areas we have already got in relation to the weekend that Sarah went missing. It's a sighting of a van in Kingston Gorse.

"The significance of this particular one is not least that a fortnight into the inquiry someone has come back from abroad and said 'I didn't know anything about this' and called."