Senait Mehari, a singer and author of two books, wrote Feuerherz (Heart of Fire) based on her experiences in Eritrea. It was made into a film directed by Italian-born Luigi Falorni.

But on Monday, publisher Droemer announced a settlement of a libel suit brought by a woman described in the book as a brutal military commander.

The woman, Almaz Yohannes, never commanded a training centre for soldiers or ordered children to be executed as the book describes, Droemer admitted.

"Rather, she was a 12-year-old student at the Tsebah school [in Eritrea]," the company said in statement. "It was a regrettable error."

Several Eritreans have disputed the truth of the memoir, which was published in 2004 and translated into several languages, including English.

Mehari has acknowledged that parts of the book were made up, based on accounts by other Eritrean child soldiers.

In the book, she claims her father sent her to train with the Eritrean Liberation Front at the age of six. The ELF was involved in a war with Ethiopia.

Later, she and her three sisters moved to live with an uncle in Sudan and she went to Germany when her father sent for her in 1990s.

In February 2007, the Zapp TV show on Germany's NDR channel accused Senait of fabricating some of the contents of her bestselling book.

Mehari, 33, has since admitted she never fired a gun.

Mehari participated in selection of a contestant for the Eurovision song contest in 2003 and, although she didn't win, has since released two albums as a singer.

Questions have also been raised about another memoir of a child soldier, Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.

Both Beah and Mehari have been outspoken about the issue of abuse of children in child armies.

Falorni's film version of Heart of Fire made its debut at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.

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