Aviation security chiefs will meet this afternoon to discuss whether the emergency ban on bringing drinks and other fluids aboard planes should become permanent.

Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary, is to chair a meeting of the National Aviation Security Committee to discuss the draconian security measures put in place at UK airports at 4am yesterday in light of an alleged suicide bomb plot to blow up US-bound passenger jets using explosive liquids.

The Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Secretary will both attend the emergency meeting, as well as intelligence officers, Transec, the department’s transport security advisory body, and senior officials from airline and airport companies.

If the move is backed at the meeting, it will be introduced for flights leaving the UK. If approved it will be put before international airline authorities.

"One of the key aims of the meeting today will be to discuss how we can keep ahead of the [terrorists'] game," said Mr Alexander. He added that he would be talking with his European counterparts later in the week about security measures.

The United States and Pakistan have also imposed bans on fluids aboard passenger aircraft. The meeting will also discuss how long the current total ban on carrying hand luggage aboard passenger jets will last.

"The heightened level of security will stay only as long as the situation demands and will be kept under constant review," Mr Alexander promised this morning.

He said that the point of the meeting was to hear how airports were faring, and to discuss the way forward in the days and weeks ahead.

A senior source at the Department for Transport said that information gathered before the terror alert was likely to change the face of aviation security. "I don’t think we will ever go back to the way we were before," the source told The Times.

Security experts agreed that the ban on hand luggage from many flights around the world marked the start of a new phase in airline safety.

The ban, which will be enforced pending a decision from the committee, permits vital items such as travel documents, wallets, baby food and nappies on board if carried in a transparent plastic bag.

However, aviation security specialists said that a more comprehensive overhaul needed to be introduced as standard.

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