BRAZILIAN supermodel Isabeli Fontana says she and Rohan Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley, are to marry in Ethiopia, the Veja magazine reports.

"Rohan told me we have to return to the roots so the marriage will last forever," the 28-year-old model, who will be marrying for the third time, is quoted as saying.

Fontana said the couple had not set a wedding date, but the Brazilian press speculated that the two could tie the knot this year at a ceremony for family and a few close friends.

The model has two children from her first two marriages, while Marley has two children from his first marriage to Geraldine Khawly and five others with singer Lauryn Hill.

Marley, who runs the Marley Coffee company, separated from Hill last year after it came out that she was expecting a child from an affair with another man.

He met Fontana a short time later.

Marley and Fontana "see each other very little" because she continues living in Sao Paulo and he lives in New York, read the report in Veja, one of Brazil's leading lifestyle publications.

The model's mother, Maribel Fontana, told the magazine she was a bit concerned about the wedding plans.

"I think everything is happening too fast," Maribel Fontana said of her daughter's plans, "but everything has a different rhythm with Isabeli."