She was the most glamorous woman in 1960s European cinema and, along with Marilyn Monroe, throughout the world as a whole.

But Brigitte Bardot doesn't think much of the Republican Party's 21st Century female show-stopper.

In perhaps the most vicious criticism that Sarah Palin has received since she became her party's vice-presidential candidate, Bardot bombarded the self-declared-hockey mum with a furious tirade of abuse in an open letter.

Describing Ms Palin as "disconcertingly stupid" and "a disgrace to women," Bardot wrote that the Republican's reluctance to accept man's role in global warming, her backing for gun rights and her perceived lack of knowledge about world affairs would destroy the world.

“I hope you lose these elections because that would be a victory for the world,” the former actress wrote. “By denying the responsibility of man in global warming, by advocating gun rights and making statements that are disconcertingly stupid, you are a disgrace to women and you alone represent a terrible threat, a true environmental catastrophe."

The screen icon from the 1960s, who now heads an animal rights foundation, went on to attack Ms Palin for supporting Arctic oil exploration that could jeopardise delicate animal habitats and for dismissing measures to protect polar bears. “This shows your total lack of responsibility, your inability to protect or simply respect animal life,” she wrote.

In a final salvo, Bardot pounced on Ms Palin's depiction of herself as a pitbull wearing lipstick, saying she “implored” her not to compare herself to dogs.

“I know them well and I can assure you that no pitbull, no dog, nor any other animal for that matter is as dangerous as you are,” Bardot wrote.

Ms Palin and the Republican candidate who chose her as his running mate, John McCain, have run into trouble in recent weeks as the Democrat Barack Obama surges ahead in the polls. This has partly been attributed to Mr McCain bungling his response to the US economic crisis, but it has also been blamed on a series of lightweight interviews and high-profile gaffes by Ms Palin, betraying what her critics claim is a lack of knowledge about world affairs.

Bardot has herself courted plenty of controversy with her own political views since her retirement from the big screen.

Following a glittering career in the 1950s and 1960s, she has developed a reputation as a radical animal rights campaigner with outspoken right-wing views on immigration and Islam. In total, she has been convicted five times for inciting racial hatred and her husband, Bernard d'Ormal, is a former adviser to the far-right National Front.

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