Madonna, 49, tried to push the adoption through last year, but Mercy's uncle John Nglande blocked it. The star reportedly renewed attempts to adopt the toddler in May by sending aides to speak to her family, but they are only prepared to go ahead with the plan if Mercy is returned to them when she is six years old.

Mercy's grandmother Anaphiri is quoted by Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper as saying: "When Mercy is no longer a baby we want her back. I do not want the money they said they'd give me."

Madonna's adoption of two-year old Malawian David Banda - a process she began in 2006 - was finalised earlier this year. It was claimed the singer had received special treatment as laws which ban non-residents from adopting children in the country were ignored.

She was widely criticised when it was discovered that while David's mother had died, his father was still alive and had been visiting him in his orphanage.

It was confirmed yesterday that Asienti Mwale, the women who raised David in Malawi, died on Sunday night of pneumonia. Madonna - who has two other children, Lourdes, 11, and eight-year-old Rocco - recently said the adoption process was like "natural childbirth".

She said: "It was painful and a big struggle and I didn't understand it. In the end, I rationalized that when a woman goes through natural childbirth, she suffers an enormous amount. I went through my own kind of birthing pains."