Madonna has said that she offered financial help to the father of the baby boy she hopes to adopt so that he could keep his son in Malawi, but that he turned her down.

In her first British interview about the controversial adoption of 13-month-old David Banda on BBC2's Newsnight tonight, Madonna will say that Yohane Banda refused her offer of money and instead gave her permission to adopt his child.

"Yes I offered that option to the father and he declined," she said in a clip of the interview which was shown at the end of last night's programme.

Madonna also denied claims that the boy received regular visits from his family, in contrast to the father who says he used to cycle miles to the orphanage to visit his son regularly.

"I never met a granny and I was told ... that from the day that he was left in the orphanage he was not visited by any extended family members and that's really why I became interested in him," she said in extracts of the interview that have been released early.

"If someone had said to me: 'His dad comes every week or his granny visits on a regular basis and he's well looked after', I would not even have given it another thought."

Mr Banda has said that his son was not an abandoned baby. "He was very much loved."

Last week, Madonna, 48, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to defend her decision to adopt the baby from an orphanage in Malawi. Some critics believe that the singer was not pressed on her reasons for adopting David by Ms Winfrey and will be hoping for more difficult questions from Kirsty Wark.

Child-protection agencies have criticised Madonna for the apparent speed with which she secured an interim adoption. In Malawi adoptive parents usually have to have been resident there for 18 months.

Last week a judge in Malawi adjourned a hearing into an attempt by a human rights group to block the adoption. Mr Banda went to the court in the capital city, Lilongwe, as a protest against moves to prevent the adoption.

He said: “I made the right decision. I am glad he’s been adopted and every day I am happy knowing my son will lead a better life. All children need a mother. How can I deny him that right?”

Mr Banda added that Madonna had agreed to bring the boy back every three or four years.

Madonna will also use tonight's interview to publicise her new children's book, The English Roses: Too Good To Be True.

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