Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday said he expected the Egyptian army to withdraw its reinforcements from the Sinai Peninsula after operation to eliminate militants.

Barak said in an interview with Israel's army radio that Israel had "several reservations" over Egypt's deployment of reinforcements in the lawless peninsula, some of which fell outside the terms of the 1979 peace treaty which limits the number of Egyptian troops there.

Egypt began an unprecedented military operation in the peninsula earlier this month after militants killed 16 Egyptian border police in northern Sinai in a deadly attack on August 5.