Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisihas  pardoned 100 prisoners including three Al Jazeera television journalists, security sources said, a day before he plans to head to the annual United Nations summit.

Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Australian Peter Greste were sentenced to three years in prison in a retrial last month for operating without a press license and broadcasting material harmful to Egypt. Greste had already been deported in February.

Egypt's state news agency confirmed the pardons, saying the pardoned prisoners included those who violated a law against public protest as well as some who were sick.

"This comes in the framework of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's initiative to release a number of youth which he launched... in December," it said, quoting presidential sources.

Human rights groups have accused Egyptian authorities of widespread violations since the army toppled the country's first democratically elected president, Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

Egyptian security forces arrested dozens of activists last year for violating a 2013 law banning protests without a permit.

Among the released were 16 women, including Yara Sallam, the state news agency said. Sallam was arrested last year along with other activists accused of violating the protest law.

The pardons were announced on the same day that France announced it had agreed to sell Egypt two French Mistral helicopter carriers, whose planned sale to Russia had been cancelled