Pop star Madonna has adopted a one-year-old African boy, his father claimed, saying he was happy his son would escape a life of poverty in Malawi, tabloid newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The Sun splashed a picture of the singer dressed in a safari hat and smiling, with a young child it said she had chosen at an orphanage strapped to her back.

Last week, a spokeswoman for Madonna denied comments by officials in the African state that the performer had adopted a child. A spokeswoman in Britain did not immediately return calls for comment on the latest reports.

Madonna visited an orphanage in this impoverished African country Thursday, handing out copies of her book "The English Roses" to a crowd of AIDS orphans as her publicist dismissed claims that she was going to adopt a child herself.

The pop star was greeted by about 50 children as she arrived in a four-vehicle convoy. Bodyguards prevented journalists from getting access to the premises or approaching her.