UPDATED 4.38pm: The Government has dumped an immense number of documents related to the controversial Saudi sheep deal.

Hundreds of papers dating back to 2007 have been released showing that as far back as 2010 the Government was looking at ways of resolving the live sheep export impasse with Saudi Arabia.

Journalists are still making their way through hundreds of pages of documents, but preliminary searches show the farm set up in Saudi Arabia was done so with the Free Trade Agreement with the Gulf States in mind.

The Government has always distanced itself from the claims that the $6m farm and its stocking with sheep, and a further $4m to a rich Saudi businessman, was a buy-off for getting the Saudis on board with other Gulf states on a free trade agreement.

However, a tersely worded letter from an asset management company to Foreign Affairs says the plan for the farm was indeed to get the Saudis, miffed over the axing of the live sheep trade, on side for the trade deal.

Papers dating back to the last Labour Government show there were legal, commercial, and diplomatic risks from the decision to halt live sheep exports.

However all advice giving specific details about those risks has been redacted.

The papers show the government of the day was advised there were greater risks in allowing the live sheep trade to continue than there were in curtailing it.

Emails released under the Official Information Act show that in August 2010, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the issue needed to be front-footed.

Options discussed included; allowing the live export trade to be resumed but limited to one breed of sheep and of a consignment that was below official standards for live shipments.

The correspondence shows Government ministers were supportive of "this clever approach".

Mr McCully is quoted as saying New Zealand needed to protect its wider trading interests including in the developing Gulf markets, and to that end it might have to do a few things more around the live sheep trade.

Prime Minister John Key is confident the documents will show the government was backed into a corner and previous Labour government created a need for the deal.

"In terms of initial responsibility there's no question where that rests, it rests with the previous Labour government," Mr Key said.

"They were the people that deliberately, and I say deliberately, changed their position and then decided to do a complete 180 and not find a solution, made sure the Saudis didn't find out about it."

Foreign Minister Murray McCully is also out of the country.