The father of the baby adopted by Madonna says another foreign woman had been about to adopt him before the singer intervened.

Malawian peasant farmer Yohane Banda said plans for his 13-monthold son David to be adopted were already in motion when Madonna came on the scene.

Mr Banda spoke of his regret that she had taken David when he could have had a much quieter life had he been adopted by the other, unnamed, woman.

For six years the woman has been making donations to the Home Of Hope orphanage in Mchinji, where David was placed by his father after his mother died from childbirth complications. The woman has also regularly lived there for three months at a time.

Mr Banda said: 'The woman's brother's name was also David and she sent him pictures of my son and said he was going to come and collect him. We were waiting for them both to come back to the village, but Madonna took him first.

'If these people had adopted him, no one would have ever caused this fuss and I could be living my life as normal.'

The new claim came as the main benefactor to the orphanage, a 70-year-old Canadian grandmother who had developed a close bond with David in his first year of life, spoke of her feelings about Madonna taking 'one of our babies'.

Retired teacher Jane Glaves had been making regular trips to the orphanage since 2000, staying for long periods with many of the children at a house she has built there.

In 2003 she took twin boys and a girl to Canada to be adopted, the only non-Malawian ever to do so. She was consulted by officials from Malawi over Madonna's adoption.

Mrs Glaves said: 'David is such a special little boy. I would take them all in if I could, but I just could not put myself through it again.'

Speaking about Madonna's adoption, she told First magazine: 'All I knew about her was that she cavorted half naked in a conical bra. I found it difficult to come to terms with the fact she wanted one of our babies.'

Mrs Glaves said she was perplexed when Madonna chose David. 'We put forward the names of children who had nobody, but she chose David knowing he had a living parent,' she said.

She added: 'Madonna has said she was told David's family had never been to visit him. But David's dad used to come to see him regularly.'

Malawian law says foreigners must live in the country for 18 months before they are eligible to adopt a child. Madonna has admitted that her team had to 'make the laws up as they went along' to adopt David.

When Mrs Glaves was involved in the adoption of the twins and a girl by two Canadian families, the process took three years.

'At first I was angry that Madonna seemed to be able to adopt David so quickly because of the length of time and stress the other two families had to endure,' she said. 'In my six years working in Malawi, they are the only orphans I know to have left the country. Madonna obviously had very good lawyers.'

Last week Madonna, 48, said that when she met David at the orphanage she was told his mother had died of Aids, while his father's whereabouts were unknown.

But Mr Banda said: 'This is not true. I used to cycle there almost every week to play with him, and his grandmother would sometimes go and spend a few days there.

David was not an abandoned baby. He was very much loved.'

On the claim that his wife had died of Aids, he said: 'She never went for an HIV test, so how could anyone know?'

He added, however: '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.'

Tonight Madonna will give her first British interview about the adoption to BBC2's Newsnight.