French film icon Brigitte Bardot has praised Slovenian President JANEZ DRNOVSEK for his outspoken support of animal rights. Drnovsek, 56, dramatically changed his outlook on life in 1999 after a kidney cancer scare and became a staunch vegetarian. Bardot, 72, writes in a letter: "Knowing that the president of a European Union member state is a vegetarian, that he opposes laboratory experiments on animals, hunting and intensive animal breeding... represents hope rather than consolation. "I wish we (in the French presidential elections) had at least a candidate like Janez Drnovsek... then the world would soon become less unbearable."