Republican candidate Mitt Romney says attacks on business and taxes are just diversions from discussing issues and positions in the presidential race.

Romney's personal taxes and his business activities have come under intense criticism from the campaign of President Barack Obama and its allies.

In an interview aired Friday night with NBC News, Romney said he would "love to" have a setting in which he and Obama would only talk about issues and about the differences between their positions.

Romney says both campaigns would benefit if they agreed that, in his words, "attacks based upon business or family or taxes or things of that nature - that this is just - this is diversion."

Romney has pointed to his business experience as evidence that he could improve the economy.