WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in her first television interview since being shot in a Tucson rampage, appeared alert and happy Monday, but spoke in halting phrases.

Continue reading

Giffords appeared on ABC's "20/20" program. It was her first extended interview since the January shootings that killed six people and wounded 13.

Giffords said she will not return to Congress until she is "better." Giffords struggled to form sentences throughout the interview and replied, "No. ... Better" when asked if she wanted to return to Congress.

She moved her hands in front of her mouth as if needing to form the words and said, "Better, better." Her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, completed the thought for her, saying, "She wants to get better."

"Pretty good. ... Difficult. ... Strong, strong, strong," she replied to questions from interviewer Diane Sawyer as her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, completed the sentences for her. When asked what she was thinking about, she said, "Africa."

Kelly explained they were considering a vacation there.

Earlier, videos Kelly shot during his wife's more than 10-month recovery showed Giffords from the day of the shooting through several months of intense physical therapy at a Houston hospital.

VIEW a timeline of Giffords' recovery

“She is vibrant, and she understands what you are saying and she is responding with everything inside her,” Sawyer said of Giffords.

Giffords and Kelly are also releasing a new book detailing the recover and their lives before and after the shooting.

On the last page of the book, Giffords says that she "will get stronger" and "will return" as her recovery continues.

"I just held her, and said, you know, we'll get through this," he told Diane Sawyer during the interview, which runs in its entirety tonight at 9 p.m.