Madonna staff seen boarding plane with Malawi baby

LILONGWE, Oct 16 (Reuters) A bodyguard working for Madonna boarded a small private plane at a Malawi airport today with the one-year-old boy the pop star hopes to adopt, a Reuters witness said.

Human rights groups had planned to file an application today asking the court to block the adoption of David Banda.

Malawian law prohibits adoptions by non-residents, but officials are granting an exemption or waiver to Madonna, who has confirmed her intention to adopt the child who lives in a dilapidated orphanage near the Zambian border.

Today's events came less than a week after Malawi's High Court granted the entertainer and her filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie an interim order allowing them to take custody of the child.

The couple, who arrived in Malawi on October 4 on what was described as a humanitarian trip, left last Friday without the child, who did not have a passport.

Eye of the Child, the leading child advocacy group in Malawi, said on Saturday the request for an injunction would be filed in a magistrate's court in the capital Lilongwe on behalf of about five dozen non-governmental organizations.

''They (government) haven't followed the law. What has happened is a shortcut,'' said Boniface Mandere, a spokesman for Eye of the Child, which is among the groups seeking the injunction.

Madonna spent most of her time in Malawi visiting orphanages and meeting charity workers as part of a campaign to publicise the plight of some 900,000 orphans in this nation of 13 million people, where AIDS has destroyed many families.

She has pledged to donate about 3 million dollars to the campaign to help these children, many of whom are infected with HIV. The effort is being spearheaded by her Raising Malawi charity.

REUTERS SAM RN2053