TEHRAN — President-elect Hassan Rowhani of Iran, speaking Monday for the first time since his election victory, said he wanted to reduce tensions with the United States but ruled out direct talks between the two estranged nations.

In his first news conference after winning Friday’s presidential election promising more freedoms and better relations with the outside world, Mr. Rowhani called the issue of nonexistent relations between Iran and the United States “an old wound, which must be healed.”

Iran, he said, wants to reduce tensions between the two countries, which have no diplomatic relations and are at odds over the nature of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. Echoing similar statements from the departing administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mr. Rowhani said there would be no direct talks until the United States stopped “interfering in Iran’s domestic politics,” respected what he called Iran’s nuclear rights and lifted economic sanctions.

“All should know that the next government will not budge from defending our inalienable rights,” Mr. Rowhani told reporters. He emphasized that, like those of his predecessors, his government would not be prepared to suspend uranium enrichment, something he had done as a nuclear negotiator in 2004 as a trust-building measure in discussions with European countries.