The Rev. Al Sharpton said Monday he's found "common ground" with LDS Church leaders during a visit to Salt Lake City that included a meeting with Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve.

The pair spent two hours together Sunday night, the Rev. Sharpton told listeners during his nationally syndicated radio talk show broadcast Monday from Salt Lake City but "talked very little if at all" about his recent comment suggesting Mormons don't believe in God.

It was that comment from the former Democratic presidential candidate, made during a debate on religion in New York City earlier this month, that sparked the Rev. Sharpton's interest in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and prompted his visit to Utah.

The Rev. Sharpton already apologized for offending church members by saying of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, "as for the one Mormon running for office, those that really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry about that, that's a temporary situation."

Romney, who is LDS, labeled the comment "extraordinarily bigoted," but the Rev. Sharpton said again Monday on his radio show that he was unfairly portrayed as "referring in a derogatory way to Mormons."

The Pentecostal minister went on to say that "whatever difference I have with their denomination or their religion, as I might with any that is not my own, has nothing to do with my disregard or disrespect for their faith."

The Rev. Sharpton made a brief statement to local reporters but answered no questions before going into the Family History Library in midafternoon. "I was very happy to come and have the last day and a half here, by the time I leave, talking with leaders of the Mormon Church.

"This visit is not about politics. It's not about controversy. It was about our trying to discuss, as believers of God in Christ, common ground — things that we should know about each other that we do not know," he said.

It was not clear whether the questions the Rev. Sharpton has raised recently about the LDS Church's treatment of African-Americans were discussed during his visit. The LDS Church did not allow black males to hold the priesthood until 1978.

But he told the more than dozen print, radio and television reporters and photographers gathered around him that "we have not talked about politics and controversy at all. Unless, of course, there are those of you who think serving God's people is controversial."

The Rev. Sharpton described seeing the larger-than-life "Christus" statute of Jesus Christ at Temple Square with Elder Ballard on Sunday night after the pair had dinner together as "a very moving thing to me."