The measures focus on checks for airport staff and stronger restrictions on access to sensitive areas.

The news comes as hundreds of security staff at Manchester Airport prepare for a four-day strike which could disrupt thousands of holidaymakers over Easter.

The measures were recommended by a working group set up by Transport Secretary Stephen Byers and Home Secretary David Blunkett in the wake of the robberies.

Mr Blunkett was particularly concerned that they took place during a period of heightened security after 11 September.

From May the new measure will include:

• New requirements for the identification, recovery and deletion of lost, or no longer needed, security passes
  
• Counter-terrorism and criminal record checks on security staff will be extended
  
• Advice on handling high-value cargo at airports issued by the Department of Transport
  
• Enhanced role for airport security committees
  
• A new national standard for the issue of restricted zone passes will besent to airport security managers

Mr Byers also said he would publish a list of approved aviation security companies by the end of the year - airlines and airports would be required to use only those listed companies.

Over the next few months CCTV coverage at airports will be reviewed and improved systems installed.

Mr Blunkett said the working group was continuing its study into whether additional measures were necessary.

'Inside' job

Mike Hodgkinson, chief executive of airport operator BAA, which operations several airports including Heathrow, welcomed the new regulations.

"We have long urged government to introduce a requirement for criminal record checks to be made on identity pass applicants," he said.

"BAA has benefited from regulation on all our activities, including security standards, since privatisation in 1987.

"It is fitting that other security operators at airports should have to be approved."

In the first Heathrow raid, on 11 February, a gang stole more than $6m (�4.2m) in cash from a British Airways security van.