The private plane departed for an undisclosed destination just before 2 a.m. after a three-hour wait on the tarmac at Lilongwe airport. No reason was given for the delay, according to media reports.

    "The baby hasn't gone yet because immigration is still trying to process his passport," a senior immigration official told Reuters on Friday, hours after the pop star's plane left the country.

    Malawi law does not allow for intercountry adoptions, and generally requires people who want to adopt to spend 18 months being evaluated by Malawian child welfare workers. Malawian officials had indicated earlier such restrictions would be waived for Madonna and Ritchie, but refused to elaborate Thursday.

    Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie have homes in the United States and Britain, most unlikely settings for the young Banda, who has lived almost all of his brief life in a dilapidated orphanage.

    The news that the child would be heading to a new life with a mega-rich pop star was seen generally as a blessing at the orphanage and surrounding villages, prompting some envy among the kids who weren't chosen.

    "I didn't know Madonna before she came to the orphanage, but I wish I had been the one she adopted. Life is hard here," Anders Malikita, a 14-year-old child at the orphanage, said.

    Madonna, who has a son and daughter, has spent most of the past week visiting orphanages and meeting charity workers as part of a campaign to publicize the plight of some 900,000 orphans in the country 13 million people, where AIDS has destroyed many families. Enditem

(Agencies)