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Lord Goldsmith said: "I want to make it clear that I didn't agree with the decision that has apparently been made that certain documents are not to be declassified but I will give the evidence that the inquiry seeks."
The inquiry head, Sir John Chilcot, told him "We share your frustration."
It was also revealed that Lord Goldsmith wrote to the US government in mid-2002 to say that Tony Blair did not have the authority to over-ride a UN resolution and agree with George Bush to go to war with Iraq.
The former Attorney General said his letter was not "terribly welcome" by Mr Blair.
Lord Goldsmith met Will Taft, the legal adviser to the US State Department, on May 22, 2002.
They did not discuss the legal basis for attacking Iraq "in any detail" but Lord Goldsmith followed up the meeting with a letter.
He told the inquiry "I did it of my own volition because I knew that the Prime Minister was going to see President Bush in the United States.
"I knew that one of the topics of conversation at least was going to be the Iraq issue because that was obviously very much on the international agenda at that stage.
"And I didn't want there to be any doubt that in my view the Prime Minister could not have the view that he could agree with President Bush somehow, 'let's go without going back to the United Nations'.
"I wasn't asked for it. I don't frankly think it was terribly welcome.
"I do believe that it may have well been one of the contributing factors to the Prime Minister, to his great credit, persuading President Bush that he must go down the United Nations route."
Asked why his letter was not welcome, Lord Goldsmith said "You will have to ask Mr Blair that."
Lord Goldsmith admitted that at first he believed it would not be legal for Britain to invade Iraq without a second Security Council resolution.
He told the inquiry "At one stage my personal view was that taking all these factors into the balance, there wasn't enough there.
"The balance came down in favour of saying, 'no, a second resolution is needed'...
"I then ultimately reached, when I had to reach a definitive view on this, a different view."
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