Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site. The Kayhan Daily newspaper, which is close to Iran's ruling clerics, says uranium gas is being injected into sophisticated centrifuges at the Fordo facility near the holy city of Qom.

Fordo is buried under 90 meters of rock. It's a hardened tunnel protected by air defense missile batteries and the Revolutionary Guard, Iran's most powerful military force.

Iran says the higher enrichment activities — of nearly 20 percent — will be carried out at Fordo. Nearly 8-thousand centrifuges are already in operation at a major enrichment facility in Na-tanz in central Iran.

The West suspects that Iran's nuclear program may be meant for producing weapons, but Tehran has denied that. Iran's nuclear chief says his country is willing to help what he called "friendly" African nations that have uranium reserves to set up facilities to process the ore into nuclear material.