LONDON (Reuters) - Detectives have travelled to Kenya as part of a new inquiry into the murder of photographer Julie Ward, whose burnt and mutilated body was found in a game park 22 years ago, police said on Tuesday.

Ward, 28, vanished during a photographic wildlife tour of the Masai Mara game reserve in southwest Kenya in 1988. Her dismembered and charred remains were discovered a week after she was reported missing.

Despite repeated investigations by British and Kenyan authorities, no one has been convicted of the murder.

London's Metropolitan Police (MPS) said a team of six detectives and a forensic officer had visited Kenya last month to follow up potential new leads.

"MPS officers continue to work closely with, and receive positive cooperation from Kenyan authorities in this investigation," a spokesman said.

He declined to comment on media reports that the inquiry would focus on possible new DNA evidence.

The murdered photographer's father John Ward, a millionaire retired hotelier, has long waged an expensive campaign to bring those responsible for his daughter's death to justice.

Two park rangers were cleared of the murder in 1992, and the reserve's head warden was acquitted of her killing in 1999.

Kenya reopened the case in 2005 and John Ward said there had been flaws in previous probes, accusing the government of Kenya's former president Daniel arap Moi and some British authorities of obstructing the initial investigation.

Kenyan authorities first said Julie had been attacked by wild animals but later accepted she had been murdered.

"It's always been agreed that this case is solvable, and what it's lacked is the will to solve it," Ward told BBC radio.

"We've got the right people in place in London and we've got the right people in place in Kenya, and the two of them working together provide a formidable force to go forward. If this thing can be solved, this is the time."