Fresh evidence at inquiry into 1985 Air India bombing that took 329 lives suggest that a better effort by Canadian Security and transport agencies could have averted the disaster.

The new documents - delivered to the inquiry by government officials last fall and made public earlier this week - indicate that Transport Canada conducted only minimal monitoring of Air India's security arrangements in the months leading up to the bombing, lawyers for the victim's family said.

Other documents suggest Air India managers themselves were confused about some security measures the day ill-fated Flight 182 left Toronto and later to be downed off the coast of Ireland.

The documents also strengthen previous evidence showing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was hindered by a bureaucratic "quagmire" in its efforts to tap the phones of suspected Sikh extremists prior to the bombing.

"What we're seeing in these documents is a validation and a confirmation of what some of our hunches was," Jacques Shore, one of the lawyers for the victims' families said.

But the federal government asked inquiry headed by former Supreme Court judge John Major not to point fingers at anyone for past mistakes.

The government's legal team has urged Justice Major to concentrate on forward-looking recommendations to bolster future anti-terrorism efforts.