Two Canadian female members of a multinational force were slightly wounded in an explosion near the unit's base in northeast Sinai on Monday morning.

Senior Egyptian security officials in Cairo said the two wounded were Canadian women sergeants, and that one was hurt in the foot. They have returned to duty.

The peacekeepers are members of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO). Their names were not immediately known.

Senior security officials said the explosion badly damaged the vehicle in which the MFO members were riding.

The explosion happened about 15 kilometres from Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip. The explosion was caused by a natural gas canister planted on the roadside and detonated through a wire.

MFO spokesman Ian Baxendell said two force members were "very lightly injured," but he did not know their names, gender or nationality. Earlier he had said he was unaware of any casualties.

Egypt's Interior Ministry issued a statement saying a "limited explosion" went off, causing no casualties, as an MFO patrol passed about a kilometre from the force's base.

The Multinational Force and Observers was created to help implement the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The Canadian roles include providing air traffic control, training, and engineering services. The Canadian contingent consists of twenty-nine volunteers.

The MFO is made up of troops from the United States, Canada and a number of European nations who act as a peace monitoring force in the Sinai peninsula -- the battlefield of three Arab-Israeli wars between 1956 and 1973.