Bullfighting is popular in Portugal. However, unlike in neighbouring Spain, where the fight ends in the death of the bull, in Portugal the animal is usually led away at the finish by cows.

The new law means Barrancos' residents can hold bullfights "without being subject to threats, to pressure, tension, and all the grief that they have had in recent years in preparing and carrying out this festival," said Telmo Correia, parliamentary leader of the conservative Popular Party, which backed the bill.

The Popular Party supported legalising the fights in Barrancos to defend a local tradition. The party's ideological opposites, the Communists, also backed the measure.

About 100 demonstrators carrying signs reading "Stop the bloody bullfight" and "Leave the bulls in peace" gathered outside parliament to protest the vote.

Passage gained force last month when President Jorge Sampaio visited Barrancos, about 210 km (130 km) southeast of Lisbon on the Spanish border, and backed legalising the fights.

Parliament had balked three times since May 1999 at passing the Barrancos bill.

Bardot, a former actress turned animal rights activist, condemned the bullfighting bill.

"As if there is not enough horror, we even have to see bloodied animals suffering in a public spectacle," she told the Lusa news agency in Paris.