BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — First lady Cristina Fernandez, in her first televised interview since winning Argentina's presidency, thanked her husband for helping her triumph at the polls and wished Hillary Rodham Clinton well in her U.S. election bid.

Speaking on Argentina's Todo Noticias network, Fernandez denied President Nestor Kirchner had distorted the extent of inflation and promised to put a priority on creating jobs, boosting exports and bettering health care and education.

Fernandez, a 54-year-old three-term senator, captured 45 percent of the vote Sunday, outpacing another woman runner-up, independent Elisa Carrio, by more than 22 percentage points.

Fernandez promised unspecified measures to reduce the poverty that afflicts a quarter of Argentina's 37 million people, down from more than 50 percent at the height of the 2002 crisis.

She also vowed to make Argentine exports more competitive and to strengthen the region's dispute-ridden trade bloc, Mercosur, which recently invited Venezuela to join.

"We have to deepen our place in Latin America and amplify Mercosur," she said.