Mitt Romney argued in an interview aired Sunday that President Obama's decision to forgo public financing for his campaign sparked a spending war.

"To be competitive we are obviously following suit, but I would far rather have a setting where we had both agreed to the federal spending limits," Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, said in an interview on Fox.

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Obama opted out of the public financing system in his first run for the White House in 2008, a decision that allowed him to raise more money from private donors. Obama argued at the time that the public financing system was broken.

Romney said Obama's decision meant that both candidates have to spend more time fundraising and have less time to connect with voters and present their policies.

"What's he's done has meant that both of us have to spend an inordinate amount of time fundraising. We can't spend as much time on the campaign trail," Romney said.

Romney and the Republican National Committee announced in August that they had raised $101.3 million, outdrawing the Obama campaign by more than $25 million.

It was the third month in a row that Romney had topped Obama in fundraising and the second straight month they passed the $100 million mark.

Romney’s fundraising prowess has sparked concern in the Obama campaign that they may be outspent in the run-up to November.