Is there any way to create a Persistent FTP Connection?

I nam trying to build a file transfer utility for a content management system - I believe that the best way to do this is via a frame based utility which connects in one frame - handles all transfers and messagaing in another frame which is continually polled with new ftp commands. However I have tried to setup the ftp connection in a custom FTP class which is a session object and I am not seeing the ftp connection being correctly passed between frames. The same happens with db connections unless they are defined as persistent - is there any way I can do the same with an ftp connection. Thanks. NICK.