Algeria said it expected heavy hostage casualties after its troops ended a siege at a gas plant in the Sahara Desert.
A private television station reported that 25 bodies had been found at the gas plant near the town of In Amenas.
Some Western governments had expressed frustration at not being informed of the Algerian authorities' plans to storm the complex.
But France, which is fighting Islamist rebels in Mali, played down any suggestion the response from Algeria had been over-hasty or heavy-handed.
"What everyone needs to know is that these terrorists who attacked this gas plant are killers who pillage, rape, plunder and kill. The situation was unbearable," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.
"It's easy to say that this or that should have been done. The Algerian authorities took a decision and the toll is very high but I am a bit bothered ... when the impression is given that the Algerians are open to question.
"They had to deal with terrorists," he told Europe 1 radio in an interview.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Of course people will ask questions about the Algerian response to these events, but I would just say that the responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the terrorists who launched this vicious and cowardly attack," he said in a television statement.
"We should recognise all that the Algerians have done to work with us and to help and coordinate with us. I'd like to thank them for that. We should also recognise that the Algerians too have seen lives lost among their soldiers."
Algeria's Interior Ministry had reported yesterday that 23 hostages and 32 militants were killed during the assaults launched by Algerian special forces to end the crisis, with 107 foreign hostages and 685 Algerian hostages freed.
However, Minister of Communication Mohamed Said said this would rise when final numbers were issued in the next few hours.
Mr Cameron said three British nationals had been confirmed killed, while a further three Britons plus a British resident were also believed to be dead.
One Briton had already was confirmed killed when the gunmen seized the hostages at the plant near the Libyan border, run by Norway's Statoil along with Britain's BP and Algeria's state oil company.
Mr Said reported that the militants had six different nationalities and the operation to clear the plant of mines laid by the hostage-takers was still under way.
Believed to be among the 32 dead militants was their leader, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, a Nigerian close to al Qaeda-linked commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar, presumed mastermind of the raid.
Belmokhtar later claimed responsibility according to Mauritanian news website Sahara Media, citing a video
One American has also been confirmed dead. Statoil said five of its workers, all Norwegian nationals, were still missing.
Japanese and American workers are also unaccounted for.
President Barack Obama said the United States was seeking a "fuller understanding" from Algerian authorities of what had happened, but added that "the blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out".
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore said the Islamic militants had to take the primary responsibility for the deaths at the gas plant.
But he said the Government would have to examine how the siege of the plant was handled by Algeria, to see if sufficient care and priority was given to the safety of the hostages.
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, Mr Gilmore said the Government's thoughts were with the families of those were killed.
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