Iran has staged an elaborate ceremony to unveil new developments in its nuclear programme, - BBC reoported.
Tehran says it has used domestically-made nuclear fuel in a reactor for the first time, and also unveiled more efficient enrichment centrifuges.
State TV showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inspecting the rods as they were loaded into a reactor.
Western countries fear Iran wants to make nuclear weapons; Tehran says it only wants to produce its own energy.
The government unveiled the "new generation" of faster, more efficient uranium enrichment centrifuges at its Natanz facility in the centre of the country.
The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, said they were three times more efficient than their existing capacity.
President Ahmadinejad was wearing a white coat at the research reactor in Tehran, and was also shown attending the ceremony to mark what he has called the great achievements in the nuclear sphere.
He said last week that his country would never halt its programme to enrich uranium.
