Athens/Rome  - DNA tests erased all hopes Friday that a little girl found on a Greek island could be an Italian child who went missing four years ago from her home in Sicily.

Greek police said DNA tests conducted on the 8-year-old girl discovered on the Aegean island of Kos showed that her mother is an Albanian Roma woman who was accompanying the child.

Authorities and the media in Greece went wild with the news that the little girl discovered by an Italian tourist last month on Kos could be the missing Denise Pipitone.

The tourist visiting the island in late August was sold a bracelet by an Italian-speaking little girl who was accompanied by a Roma woman of Albanian nationality and a small boy who were begging for money.

Upon returning to Italy, the tourist notified police after seeing airport photos of missing children, one of which looked like the girl on Kos. Greek authorities were notified via Interpol.

The mother of the missing eight-year-old Italian girl cautioned Friday against "excessive enthusiasm" while waiting for the results of DNA tests to confirm whether the girl found in Greece was indeed her daughter.

"I'm serene, because I am used to this situation. In the past hundreds of claims have been made," Piera Maggio said.

She was referring to previous unsubstantiated reports regarding the whereabouts of her daughter, Denise Pipitone, who disappeared on September 1, 2004 while playing in front of her home in her hometown Mazara del Vallo, near Trapani, Sicily.

The disappearance of Denise Pipitone has echoes of the case of Ben Needham, who went missing while holidaying with his parents on Kos in 1991.

On the day of his disappearance, the then 21-month-old Ben had been left in the care of his grandparents. Despite a long-running campaign by his mother, he has never been found. (dpa)