It took an old Bond to come to the rescue of the new Bond

Sir Roger Moore, who played Agent 007 in seven of the James Bond movies, said critics of the film franchise's new star, Daniel Craig, should give him a chance.

"He's a hell of a good actor," said Moore, noting that critics haven't even seen Craig in the role yet.

"So why attack him?"

A group of James Bond fans has launched a website (www.craignotbond.com) to protest at the casting of Craig to replace Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale, now shooting in Prague.

The blond Craig, whose film work includes Munich and The Jacket, has so offended the fans they say they will boycott the film unless EON Productions and Sony Pictures admit they have made a big mistake.

Moore, who was in Toronto yesterday for a Unicef event, suggested the group was merely trying to attract people to their website, which says producers had refused to meet the price demanded for the role from Brosnan or other candidates, such as Hugh Jackman and Clive Owen.

Moore will be in Quebec City this weekend to take part in a charity film festival called Vue sur Bond 007, organised by filmmaker Hilary Saltzman, daughter of Canadian-born Harry Saltzman.

The senior Saltzman, who died in 1994, was, along with Albert Broccoli, the co-producer of most of the early Bond films.

Moore said he agreed to show up at the Bond festival because Saltzman asked him on behalf of both her father and Unicef. Moore is a goodwill ambassador for the UN children's agency and was in Toronto to attend the release of a report on child health.

He also dismissed suggestions that Bond is obsolete in a post-Cold War, post-9/11 world, where real terrorists like Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida have trivialised such Bondian super-villains and organisations as Goldfinger, Blofeld and SMERSH.

"It's fantasy," counters Moore. "Bond is fantasy, there's no real substance to it. It's a figment of imagination. ... (It's) sort of crazy, you know, a spy who is recognised wherever he goes. Spies ain't like that."