THE victims of terror attacks abroad will finally receive compensation, after the government bowed to pressure from campaigners including a North-East woman.

Payments will be made only after future incidents, but Britons injured in atrocities dating back to January 2002 who "continue to face hardship" will also receive help, MPs were told.

The announcement - which came two months after it appeared the move had been shelved - delighted Sharon Holden, who lost her 21-year-old daughter Helyn Bennett in a Turkey bomb blast.

Mrs Holden, from Spennymoor, County Durham, has campaigned for other families to be spared the ordeal that followed the tragedy, in July 2005.

The family received no financial help from the British government and a £5,000 insurance payment did not come close to covering the funeral costs, or the medical bills of five other family members seriously injured in the blast.

In October, the family was awarded £1,099,531 in compensation by the Turkish government, but has yet to receive a penny because the case went to appeal.

Mrs Holden said: "I'm over the moon. I have campaigned for this for four-and-a-half years and I feared it would never happen.

"We don't expect any help for ourselves, but it will help other people in the future, when they face lots of trips to hospital and are off work, or can never work again."

Details of the scheme have not been revealed, but compensation is not expected to be paid to to the families of people killed in foreign attacks, or for victims' loss of earnings.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said: "It is sadly the case that many recent British victims of terrorist attacks have been injured or killed because they are Westerners and there has been a particular increase in such attacks since 9/11."