Jackson was recently honoured for his work fighting Aids in Africa

President Sam Nujoma received a letter from a US travel company claiming to represent the star, saying he planned to visit as part of a cultural tour.

Mr Nujoma's personal assistant said a meeting had been scheduled with the president and Jackson.

But the star's spokeswoman said the travel firm acted without permission.

"I guess we will do our due diligence to look into how this happened," the spokeswoman said.

Jackson has said Africa is his favourite holiday destination

"These things do happen quite often. There are a lot of misrepresentations and misinformation."

She also said the star could not currently leave the US because he had turned in his passport to Santa Barbara County prosecutors in California.

That was a condition of his release after he pleaded innocent to child molestation charges.

A pre-trial hearing in the case is set to take place on 30 April.

The spokeswoman said it was "awful" that the Namibian government had been "taken in by people who will just run with things without having the proper authorisation to do so".

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Adventure in Africa Tours, the firm that wrote to Mr Nujoma, said a trip had been planned but fell through.

Its spokeswoman said she did not know why this happened.

News of the supposed visit had made headlines in Namibia, where it would have been Jackson's third visit.

He usually receives a reception that is normally given to visiting heads of state.