Madonna says she adopted a Malawian boy legally.

The pop singer broke her silence Tuesday, saying in a statement that everything she did while adopting the 1-year-old boy was legal. Her statement came the same day she was united with little David Banda at her London mansion. She said she hopes to make the adoption permanent after an 18-month evaluation period imposed by Malawi authorities.

"We have gone about the adoption procedure according to the law, like anyone else who adopts a child. Reports to the contrary are totally inaccurate," Madonna said in the statement, issued via e-mail.

Madonna said she and her husband began the adoption process "many months prior to our trip to Malawi," but she had not disclosed their intentions because she wished to keep the matter private.

"After learning that there were over 1 million orphans in Malawi, it was my wish to open up our home and help one child escape an extreme life of hardship, poverty and in many cases death, as well as expand our family," Madonna said.

"This was not a decision or commitment that my family or I take lightly," she added.

TIMELINE

• Last week: Malawi's High Court granted Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie an interim adoption order giving them custody of the boy for 18 months.
  
• Monday: David leaves Malawi
  
• Tuesday: He is whisked off a British Airways flight on Tuesday and into the arms of a woman who covered his head with a light gray coat and took him into a waiting minivan.

ADOPTION ISSUES

Human rights and child protection groups said they plan to go to court Tuesday to challenge the speedway court decision awarding Madonna and Ritchie temporary custody of the child. The groups said they're concerned child protection regulations may have been swept aside to benefit a singer who has been generous to the impoverished, AIDS-stricken southern African nation.

Justin Dzonzi, a lawyer for a coalition of Malawian human rights and child advocacy organizations, said his group was concerned that no one explained the implications of the adoption to the child's father.

MADONNA'S SIDE

But the boy's father, Yohame Banda, accused the rights groups of being "jealous of my son." The boy's mother died after giving birth, and the Banda -- a farmer -- had put his son in an orphanage.

"What's their interest? I want David to have a bright future, not to live in this poverty," he told The Associated Press in his village, Lipunga, 80 miles from the Malawian capital.

Malawian government officials said they had no objection to the adoption.

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