Mr Cole's revelations came in a Sunday newspaper

Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton's murder conviction was overturned after it was proved a dingo took her baby from a campsite at Uluru, formerly Ayers Rock.

A newspaper quoted Frank Cole, 87, as saying he had shot the dingo carrying baby Azaria but did not alert anyone.

"There's no point holding grudges," said Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton.

"The only person you hurt with that is yourself," she told Australia's Channel Nine.

Azaria's father, Michael Chamberlain, said: "I have to have an element of forgiveness, which I do forgive the man if he is telling the truth, and I would be happy for him to not be prosecuted because he's carried a very big cross."

Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton said she hoped his claims might be true.

"You know, it would be nice if he was right, because it could put everything to rest," she told the television channel.

Investigation

She served almost four years in jail for murdering her infant before being cleared of the crime after fresh evidence supported her claim that a dingo took the child.

The case was followed closely in Australia and around the world, and was made into a 1988 Hollywood movie, A Cry in the Dark, starring Meryl Streep and Sam Neill.

Lindy Chamberlain served almost four years in jail for murder

Frank Cole told the Sunday Herald Sun this week that he shot the wild dog with Azaria's body still in its jaws while on a camping trip with three friends in August 1980.

He said he did not tell police because he feared he would be fined for killing the dog.

He claimed one of his friends took Azaria's body and never said what he did with it. But Mr Cole said he thought one of the men - who has since died - could have buried the baby's body in his garden in Melbourne, Victoria.

Victoria Police told BBC News Online they had offered to assist the Northern Territories Police in any investigation into the claims.

Some of those closely involved with the case at the time have expressed scepticism at the new claims.

A senior police officer at Uluru, Frank Morris, now retired, said Azaria's clothes were found too far away from the road - and a week after her disappearance - to support Mr Cole's story.