Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran has tested a new advanced centrifuge as part of the country's ongoing nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad made the remark in a televised speech at an event in Tehran to mark Iran's National Day of Nuclear Technology.

He was believed to be referring to a new generation of advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran has begun installing six-thousand new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.

"Last year we entered the industrial scale enrichment phase and our colleagues have been running, testing and stabilising about 3,000 centrifuges here in Natanz enrichment facility for months. Today, we started the phase of installing 6,000 new centrifuges."

The United Nations has passed three sets of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment activity.

Iran says it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that ultimately will involve 54-thousand centrifuges, reiterating that its nuclear program is focused on the peaceful production of energy, not the development of weapons.