Iran's new centrifuges show its 'nefarious' intentions.

AP - An Iranian news agency says that the country has started using new advanced centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment site.

The semiofficial Fars agency reported today that a “new generation of Iranian centrifuges” had been installed and operated at the Natanz site in the center of the country.

Iran the same day announced that it had begun loading domestically made nuclear fuel rods into its Tehran research reactor, a defiant move in response to toughening Western sanctions over its controversial nuclear program.

The official IRNA news agency said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inserted the first Iranian-made rod into the reactor in northern Tehran, and state TV broadcast live images from the ceremony with Iranian nuclear experts briefing Ahmadinejad on the process.

Iran touted the development as an incremental step in the country’s efforts to master the complete nuclear fuel cycle, despite Western penalties and U.N. sanctions.

The West suspects Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it’s geared for peaceful purposes only, such as energy production. The Tehran reactor, for example, produces nuclear isotopes for treating cancer patients.

The development came as Iran said today it cut oil exports to six European countries — the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal — in response to recent new European Union sanctions.