As President Bush strongly denounces Iran’s sham elections…

“I am very disappointed in the recently disputed parliamentary elections in Iran,” Bush said in a statement read by his spokesman, Scott McClellan.

The United States is locked in a test of wills over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for energy production but which Washington fears could be used to make a bomb.

Bush said the disqualification of the candidates “deprived many Iranians of the opportunity to freely choose their representatives.”

“I join many in Iran and around the world in condemning the Iranian regime’s efforts to stifle freedom of expression, including the closing of two leading reformist newspapers in the run-up to the elections. Such measures undermine the rule of law and are clear attempts to deny the Iranian people’s desire to freely choose their leaders,” Bush said.

…the IAEA announces yet another undisclosed Islamic nuclear program.

TEHRAN, Feb. 23 — International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have discovered that Iran produced and experimented with polonium, an element useful in initiating the chain reaction that produces a nuclear explosion, according to two people familiar with a report the inspectors will submit to the United Nations this week.

Iran reportedly acknowledged the experiments but offered an explanation involving another of polonium’s possible uses, which include power generation. The IAEA noted the explanation and left the issue “hanging there,” said one person familiar with the matter. The experiments were described by this person as occurring “some time ago.”

The discovery is the latest example of a nuclear activity that Iran had not previously disclosed. Earlier, it was revealed that Iran had obtained plans and parts for a nuclear centrifuge, a sophisticated machine used to enrich uranium for use in power plants, as well as in nuclear weapons. Iran insists it always intended its nuclear program to be used only to supply electrical power.