No regrets on advice - Goldsmith

Lord Goldsmith is stepping down alongside Tony Blair

Lord Goldsmith has told the BBC he has no regrets about his legal advice on the Iraq war, as he prepares to step down as attorney general.

He said reports that, in the run-up to the 2003 war, he had changed his mind about whether it was legal were untrue.

He had tried to reach "the right legal conclusion", he said. "I believe I did that, I still believe that".

Lord Goldsmith also said he did not know why the US had begun a corruption probe into defence firm BAE Systems.

He is one of several Cabinet ministers stepping down alongside Tony Blair on Wednesday - Home Secretary John Reid, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Cabinet Office minister Hilary Armstrong are also going.

'Charged time'

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it had been a "very charged time" to be the government's chief legal advisor - as all Western democracies struggled to balance civil liberties with security threats.

Among his most controversial decisions was the advice he gave in 2003 that the invasion of Iraq was legal under international law - he later has strongly denied claims he was influenced by political pressure.

I was clear that there could be a green light for military action Lord Goldsmith

Asked whether, in hindsight, he had regretted the decision, he told the BBC: "I don't regret that.

"Of course it was a very important decision to make but I have been a professional lawyer all my life, I know you try to reach the right legal conclusion - you don't tell your clients what you they'd like to hear - you try to reach the right legal conclusion.

"I believe I did that, I still believe that".

He said it was "not true" that he had changed his mind several times in the run-up to the invasion.

Private advice

"Of course during the course of reaching a conclusion, because this was all happening in real time, it was necessary to consider the alternative arguments, " he said.

"But by the end of February...I was clear that there could be a green light for military action."

He added that he had recently learned that the then head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Alan West, had taken private legal advice which had also concluded that the war was legal.

Lord Goldsmith was also the minister who announced the controversial decision to end a Serious Fraud Office corruption probe into a 1980s deal between Britain's biggest defence contractor BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia.

This week it has emerged that the US Department of Justice had launched its own investigation into BAE, which has always maintained it has acted lawfully at all times.

Lord Goldsmith told the BBC: "They are perfectly entitled to investigate things that affect the United States. I don't know exactly what they are. I will watch with some interest."