Jolie could complete Vietnam adoption in April

HANOI - Vietnamese authorities have speeded up Angelina Jolie's adoption of a Vietnamese boy and the Hollywood star could be able to take him home by next month, the country's top adoption official said on Wednesday.

Officials at the communist-run Southeast Asian country have approved most of the paperwork, said Vu Duc Long, director of the Justice Ministry's International Adoption Department.

"We have completed the adoption paperwork in Hanoi but now the relevant authorities in Ho Chi Minh City are still processing remaining documents, so it is unlikely everything will be finished in March," he told Reuters.

Long added that the boy could leave for the United States in April. Last week, he said the adoption would likely be completed in about three months, faster than normal, partly due to Jolie's fame.

Jolie, 31, filed adoption papers in early March through an American agency without her partner Brad Pitt because under Vietnamese law, an unmarried couple may not adopt a child.

In Vietnam, adoptions have been known to take as little as one month if background checks and issues of whether the adopting family can support a child are quickly resolved.

However, the process can take six months or longer in some cases.

Long had said the child was a boy aged between 3 and 4 years from the Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. But on Wednesday, he declined to confirm the details, adding: "We have been asked to keep the boy's details confidential."

Jolie and Pitt visited Ho Chi Minh City last November and met children at the orphanage. They have one biological child, Shiloh Nouvel who was born last year, and two adoptive children -- son Maddox from Cambodia and daughter Zahara from Ethiopia.

Jolie and Pitt, who starred in the 2005 movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," have said they have no plans to marry but are committed to raising their children together. They are also working together on the film "A Mighty Heart" about the killing of a U.S. journalist by Pakistani militants.

Jolie won an Oscar in 1999 for best supporting actress in "Girl, Interrupted." She starred in the 2001 movie "Tomb Raider" which was filmed in Cambodia, neighboring Vietnam.