UPDATED 20 April 2006

AMSTERDAM — Coast Guard vessels have stopped searching the waters around the Caribbean island of Aruba for missing US teenager Natalee Holloway.

The authorities have been searching the coastal waters with sonar equipment since 16 April but US and Aruban media sources said the operation was suspended on Thursday, without any apparent success.

The latest of a series of searches began a day after the arrest of 19-year-old Dutchman Geoffrey van Cromvoirt. He is being held on suspicion of involvement in the Holloway case and for alleged drug dealing.

Holloway, 18, vanished on the night of 30 May 2005 while on holiday in Aruba with classmates to celebrate their graduation from school. Three young men were the last people seen with Holloway on the night she vanished.

The three were arrested and held in custody for weeks before being released for lack of evidence. The three - including Dutch teenager Joran van der Sloot - deny harming Holloway.

Aruban police arrested van Cromvoirt after the case was featured on crimestoppers programme 'Opsporing Verzocht' in Aruba and in the Netherlands.

Prosecution officials said van Cromvoirt is being held as a suspect not a witness, but Van der Sloot remains the main suspect.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2006]

Subject: Dutch news