"I would like to say I’m sorry for bringing this into Pax’s life."

Meanwhile, Bui Thi Bich Tuyen, a nurse at the Tam Binh orphanage, has told how Angelina and her partner Brad Pitt visited last year.

"They looked very much like ordinary people," Tuyen said.

"We thought that they were just an ordinary couple that wanted to play with the kids and give them presents. They brought lots of toys."

Angelina shared crayons and drew pictures with the children.

"We could already see that she had a heart for children," said Tuyen, who was in charge of raising Pax ever since he was brought to the orphanage as an infant.

"His Vietnamese name was Truong Quang Sang, but we just called him Sang," Tuyen said. "He is a very lively boy, but sometimes when he met strangers he would become shy and often cried."

Tuyen said: "He is just a little boy, so I don’t think he understand the big change that has come into his life.

"He is very lucky to be adopted by a famous star."

Angelina collects Vietnamese orphan - Mar 15 2007
Angelina Jolie has picked up the three-year-old Vietnamese boy she plans to adopt.

The actress, who arrived in Vietnam yesterday, arrived at the Tam Binh orphanage carrying her five-year-old son Maddox, whom she adopted in Cambodia in 2002.

About 20 children dressed in traditional Vietnamese tunics, called ao dai, welcomed the pair with flowers.

About 20 minutes after the star went inside, someone carried the boy outside to a waiting minivan with dark windows. Angelina followed him into the vehicle, which then headed into Ho Chi Minh City.

Nguyen Van Trung, the orphanage director, said Angelina greeted the boy with a kiss and held him. The child at first seemed shy with his mother-to-be, he said.

The star’s vehicle later arrived at the Department of Justice, where Vietnamese adoption officials said a ceremony was conducted at which Angelina officially took possession of the child.

Vietnamese officials have approved the adoption but US officials need to give the adoption the green light before it’s final, said Nguyen Van Trung.

The child must have a medical check-up before US officials can issue him a passport and visa. The procedures could be completed within the next day or two, an adoption official said.

Angelina in Vietnam to adopt new son - Mar 15 2007
Angelina Jolie has arrived in Vietnam, where she plans to adopt a three-year-old boy.

Airport security officials told a photographer working for the Associated Press that the star was whisked into a car with dark windows and driven away.

The actress was expected to attend an adoption ceremony with Vietnamese officials in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, according to adoption officials.

The boy was abandoned at a Ho Chi Minh City hospital as a baby and then taken to the nearby Tam Binh orphanage, where he has lived ever since, said Nguyen Van Trung, the orphanage director.

Shortly after he arrived at the orphanage, the Tam Binh staff tried unsuccessfully to locate the boy’s birth parents.

The adoption is being processed quickly because the boy is an older child, and his files were nearly complete before Angelina decided to adopt, Trung said.