Madonna visits the Kondanani Children's village, some 20 kilometres from Malawi's commercial capital Blantyre, October 5, 2006.. Photo Credit: REUTERS/Eldson Chagara

By Christopher Thompson and Mabvuto Banda

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna left Malawi on Friday without the one-year-old boy she is adopting but with a pledge from the impoverished southern African nation to try to reunite the two while the adoption process is under way.

The pop diva's departure followed a controversial nine-day humanitarian visit to Malawi, during which her aides denied earlier reports by government officials that she had chosen to adopt a boy.

The child, identified as David Banda, was not with Madonna as her white four-wheel drive vehicle swept onto the tarmac to a waiting private jet at the international airport in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital.

"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.

Malawian officials said Madonna had been granted an interim order to adopt Banda and could be given a waiver or exemption allowing her to skirt a law that prohibits non-residents from adopting Malawian children.

They said they expected Banda to visit and spend time with Madonna, who has homes in the United States and Britain, while waiting for a hearing on the application, which could take up to two years.

Officials at the Malawian embassies will monitor how the child relates to his new environment during that time and write reports that will form the basis of a Malawian court's decision on the adoption, according to a senior government official.

The news that Banda, who has spent most of his life in the dilapidated Home of Hope Orphan Care Center near the Zambian border, could be heading for a new life overseas was seen as a blessing at the orphanage and in surrounding villages.

The child faced a bleak future after his mother died and his father, a poor man from a nearby village, could not support him.

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